			Home About us Contact

Past Human Activities (past + human_activity)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Earth and Environmental Science	80%

Selected Abstracts

Robotic total station for microtopographic mapping: an example from the Northern Great Plains

ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROSPECTION, Issue 2 2006
Kenneth L. Kvamme
Abstract Past human activities in cultural landscapes are often expressed by subtle variations in surface topography that reflect buried archaeological features. When seen from the air under low sunlight angles, resultant ,shadow marks' form a cornerstone of site detection in aerial archaeology. Past attempts to quantify and map such variations across large archaeological landscapes have resorted to aerial photogrammetry, electronic total stations, air- and ground-based lidar, and kinematic global positioning systems. The most commonly used surveying instrument is the total station, but its slow rate of data acquisition makes it poorly suited for collecting vast amounts of elevation data over large areas, although it is often used for that task. A robotic total station, examined here, is a relatively new technology that provides a rapid survey solution. It requires only a single person to operate the total station by radio linkage from a control pad affixed to a wheeled reflector rod. As the rod is rolled over the landscape it is automatically tracked, and measurements of surface topography may be acquired to subcentimetre accuracy continuously, at a rate of one measurement per second. A case study from the Double Ditch State Historic Site in the Great Plains of North Dakota, a fortified earthlodge village with culturally significant surface expressions, exemplifies this potential. The loci of prehistoric houses, borrow pits, fortification ditches, middens and defensive mounds are clearly revealed in the topographic mapping. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Contiguous multi-proxy analyses (X-radiography, diatom, pollen, and microcharcoal) of Holocene archaeological features at Kuk Swamp, Upper Wahgi Valley, Papua New Guinea

GEOARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 6 2009
Tim Denham
Contiguous multi-proxy analyses (X-radiography, diatom, pollen, and microcharcoal) have been conducted on the fills of early, mid-, and mid-late Holocene features at Kuk Swamp, Upper Wahgi Valley, Papua New Guinea. The features are associated with key periods of archaeological interest: plant exploitation (ca. 10,000 cal yr B.P.), earliest cultivation (6950,6440 cal yr B.P.), and earliest ditches (ca. 4000 cal yr B.P.). The analyses are designed to clarify uncertainties regarding the reliability and association of different samples within feature fills for the interpretation of human activities on the wetland in the past. Methodologically, these investigations have clarified site formation processes, including pedogenesis within feature fills, which enable a better determination of archaeological associations for different samples within those fills. Substantively, the results provide higher resolution interpretations of paleoenvironments and past human activities on the wetland margin. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Landscape memory: the imprint of the past on contemporary landscape forms and processes

AREA, Issue 1 2010
Gary John Brierley
The imprint of the past upon contemporary landscape forms and processes is differentiated in terms of geologic, climatic and anthropogenic memory. Geologic memory refers to controls exerted upon relief, erodibility, erosivity and accommodation space (areas in landscapes where sediments are stored and reworked). These factors set the imposed boundary conditions within which contemporary landscape-forming processes operate. Climatic memory refers to the influence of past climatic conditions upon contemporary landscape forms and processes. Climatic controls exert a primary influence upon the nature of geomorphic processes, while the influence of climate upon ground cover affects the effectiveness of these processes. Climate change may induce profound alterations to the flux boundary conditions under which contemporary landscapes operate. This is exemplified by the variable imprint of glacial/interglacial cycles in differing parts of the world. Anthropogenic memory refers to the imprint of past human activities on contemporary landscapes, whereby human disturbance in the past altered landscape forms, processes and associated flow/sediment fluxes in a manner that continues to affect the way the contemporary landscape works. Contrasting examples from a tectonically stable landscape (Australia) and a tectonically uplifting landscape (New Zealand) are used to highlight the variable influence of geologic, climatic and anthropogenic memory upon the persistence and erasure of landscape forms and resulting implications for sediment flux in differing settings. [source]

Redistribution of archaeological assemblages in plowzones

GEOARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2008
Marta Navazo
Archaeological surface surveys have located open-air sites on cropland in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain). To what degree agricultural disturbances have impacted archaeological site integrity is poorly defined and may greatly affect interpretations of prehistoric land use. This paper presents the results of three experiments concerned with the effects of tillage on artifact distribution, focusing specifically on lateral and vertical artifact displacement. We demonstrate highly variable horizontal displacement of artifacts by plowing and overall downward movement of lithic materials within the soil. This results in an expansion of site boundaries and reduction of surface artifact density, yielding a biased and unrepresentative picture of past human activity. More experimental studies are needed to better define agricultural disturbances to surface archaeological assemblages. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

The effects of temporal and spatial patterns of Holocene erosion and alluviation on the archaeological record of the Central and Eastern Great Plains, U.S.A.

GEOARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2002
E. Arthur Bettis III
Patterns of erosion and deposition act as a filter that strongly influences the disposition of the archaeological record of the Central and Eastern Plains of the North American Midcontinent. Detailed studies of alluvial valley stratigraphy in four drainage basins in the region reveal temporal and spatial patterns of fluvial system behavior that control the preservation and visibility of past human activity. These basins are located on a 600-km-long longitudinal gradient extending from semiarid southwestern Kansas to moist-subhumid central Iowa. Despite significant environmental variability along this transect, basin-wide patterns of Holocene erosion and deposition are similar across the study area. From ca. 11,000 to 8000 yr B.P., aggradation, punctuated by slow alluviation and/or stability around 10,000 yr B.P., was the dominant process in large and some small valleys. The early and middle Holocene (ca. 8000,5000 yr B.P.) was a period of net erosion and sediment movement in small valleys, sediment storage in large valleys, and episodic aggradation on alluvial fans. During the late Holocene (post-5000 yr B.P.), alluvial fans stabilized, small valleys became zones of net sediment storage, and aggradation slowed in large valleys. Basin-wide aggradation followed by entrenchment and channel migration characterizes fluvial activity during the Historic period. Consideration of the effects of these temporal and spatial patterns of Holocene erosion and alluviation on the archaeological record is crucial for developing efficient cultural resource sampling strategies and for accurately interpreting the archaeological record. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source]