Building Coastal Landscapes: Zooarchaeology and Geoarchaeology of Brazilian Shell Mounds

Understanding the processes that govern the transformation of the landscape through time is essential for exploring the evolution of a coastal area. Coastal landscapes are dynamic sites, with their evolution strongly linked with waves and sea level variations. Geomorphological features in the coastal area, such as beachrock formations and dune fields, can function as indicators of the coastal landscape evolution through time. However, our knowledge of the chronological framework of coastal deposits in the Aegean coasts is limited. Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating techniques are deemed to be very promising in direct dating of the coastal sediments, especially when they are linked with archaeological evidence. The dating of the sediments from different sediment core depths, determined by the method of luminosity, allowed us to calculate the rate of sediment deposition over time. More recent coastal evolution and stability were examined from 1945 to 2020 with the use of aerial photographs and satellite images. This paper presents the 6000 ka evolution of a coastal landscape based on geomorphological, archaeological, and radio-chronological data. Based on the results, the early stages of the Ammoudara beach dune field appears to have been formed ~9.0–9.6 ka BP, while the OSL ages from 6 m depth represented the timing of its stabilization (OSL ages ~5–6 ka). This indicates that the dune field appears to already have been formed long before the Bronze Age (5–10 ka BP). It became stabilized with only localized episodes of dune reactivation occurring. In contrast, while high coastal erosion rates were calculated for modern times.

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The environmental and ecological determinants of elevated Ross River Virus exposure in koalas residing in urban coastal landscapes

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-83919-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Brian J. Johnson ◽

Amy Robbins ◽

Narayan Gyawali ◽

Oselyne Ong ◽

Joanne Loader ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Animal Movement ◽

Ross River Virus ◽

Mosquito Vector ◽

Large Numbers ◽

Culex Annulirostris ◽

Coastal Landscapes ◽

In The Wild ◽

Virus Exposure ◽

Elevated Exposure ◽

The Impact

AbstractKoala populations in many areas of Australia have declined sharply in response to habitat loss, disease and the effects of climate change. Koalas may face further morbidity from endemic mosquito-borne viruses, but the impact of such viruses is currently unknown. Few seroprevalence studies in the wild exist and little is known of the determinants of exposure. Here, we exploited a large, spatially and temporally explicit koala survey to define the intensity of Ross River Virus (RRV) exposure in koalas residing in urban coastal environments in southeast Queensland, Australia. We demonstrate that RRV exposure in koalas is much higher (> 80%) than reported in other sero-surveys and that exposure is uniform across the urban coastal landscape. Uniformity in exposure is related to the presence of the major RRV mosquito vector, Culex annulirostris, and similarities in animal movement, tree use, and age-dependent increases in exposure risk. Elevated exposure ultimately appears to result from the confinement of remaining coastal koala habitat to the edges of permanent wetlands unsuitable for urban development and which produce large numbers of competent mosquito vectors. The results further illustrate that koalas and other RRV-susceptible vertebrates may serve as useful sentinels of human urban exposure in endemic areas.

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Regional differences in recreational preferences of Estonian coastal landscapes

Journal of Coastal Research ◽

10.2112/si70-071.1 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 70 ◽

pp. 420-425 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mart Reimann ◽

Üllas Ehrlich ◽

Hannes Tõnisson

Keyword(s):

Regional Differences ◽

Coastal Landscapes

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Intermittent but Rapid Changes to Coastal Landscapes: The Tsunami and El Niño Wave-Formed Sea Arch at Laie Point, Oahu, Hawaii, U.S.A.

Geosciences ◽

10.3390/geosciences11030147 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 147

Author(s):

Benjamin R. Jordan

Keyword(s):

El Niño ◽

El Nino ◽

Sand Dunes ◽

Tsunami Source ◽

Tsunami Waves ◽

Storm Waves ◽

The Pacific ◽

Coastal Landscapes ◽

Wave Heights ◽

First Time

Kukuiho’olua Island is an islet that lies 164 m due north of Laie Point, a peninsula of cemented, coastal, Pleistocene and Holocene sand dunes. Kukuiho’olua Island consists of the same dune deposits as Laie Point and is cut by a sea arch, which, documented here for first time, may have formed during the 1 April 1946 “April Fools’s Day Tsunami.” The tsunami-source of formation is supported by previous modeling by other authors, which indicated that the geometry of overhanging sea cliffs can greatly strengthen and focus the force of tsunami waves. Additional changes occurred to the island and arch during the 2015–2016 El Niño event, which was one of the strongest on record. During the event, anomalous wave heights and reversed wind directions occurred across the Pacific. On the night of 24–25 February 2016, large storm waves, resulting from the unique El Niño conditions washed out a large boulder that had lain within the arch since its initial formation, significantly increasing the open area beneath the arch. Large waves also rose high enough for seawater to flow over the peninsula at Laie Point, causing significant erosion of its upper surface. These changes at Laie Point and Kukuio’olua Island serve as examples of long-term, intermittent change to a coastline—changes that, although infrequent, can occur quickly and dramatically, potentially making them geologic hazards.

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Initial insights into Aterian hunter–gatherer settlements on coastal landscapes: The example of Unit 8 of El Mnasra Cave (Témara, Morocco)

Quaternary International ◽

10.1016/j.quaint.2015.11.136 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 413 ◽

pp. 5-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Emilie Campmas ◽

Fethi Amani ◽

André Morala ◽

André Debénath ◽

Mohamed Abdeljalil El Hajraoui ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Coastal Landscapes

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The Origin of Neolithic Culture in Northern Europe

Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0003598x00020184 ◽

1949 ◽

Vol 23 (91) ◽

pp. 129-135 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

V. G. Childe

Keyword(s):

Northern Europe ◽

Southern Sweden ◽

The South ◽

The West ◽

The North ◽

Neolithic Culture ◽

Northwest Germany ◽

Shell Mounds ◽

Expansive Group ◽

Megalithic Tombs

Till 1948 the coherent record of farming in Northern Europe began with the neolithic culture represented in the Danish dysser (‘dolmens’) and most readily defined by the funnel-necked beakers, collared flasks and ‘amphorae’ found therein. As early as 1910 Gustav Kossinna had remarked that these distinctive ceramic types, and accordingly the culture they defined, were not confined to the West Baltic coastlands, but recurred in the valleys of the Upper Vistula and Oder to the east, to the south as far as the Upper Elbe and in northwest Germany and Holland too. He saw in this distribution evidence for the first expansion of Urindogermanen from their cradle in the Cimbrian peninsula. In the sequel Åberg filled in the documentation of this expansion with fresh spots on the distribution map and Kossinna himself distinguished typologically four main provinces or geographical groups—the Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western. Finally Jazdrzewski gave a standard account of the whole content of what had come to be called Kultura puharów lejkowatych, Trichterbecherkultur, or Tragtbaegerkulturen. As ‘Funnel-necked-beaker culture’ is a clumsy expression and English terminology is already overloaded with ‘beakers’, I shall use the term ‘First Northern’.The orgin of this vigorous and expansive group of cultivators and herdsmen has always been an enigma. Not even Kossinna imagined that the savages of the Ertebølle shell-mounds spontaneously began cultivating cereals and breeding sheep in Denmark. As dysser were regarded as megalithic tombs and as megaliths are Atlantic phenomena, he supposed that the bases of the neolithic economy were introduced from the West together with the ‘megalithic idea’. But the First Northern Farmers of the South and East groups did not build megalithic tombs. Moreover, in the last ten years an extension of the North group across southern Sweden as far as Södermannland has come to light, and these farmers too, though they used collared flasks and funnel-necked beakers, built no dolmens either. In any case there was nothing Western about the pottery from the Danish dysser, and Western types of arrow-head are conspicuously rare in Denmark.

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Shell Mounds in the Southeast: Middens, Monuments, Temple Mounds, Rings, or Works?

American Antiquity ◽

10.7183/0002-7316.75.3.551 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 75 (3) ◽

pp. 551-570 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

William H. Marquardt

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

South Carolina ◽

Climate Changes ◽

Southeastern United States ◽

Short Term ◽

Mound Construction ◽

Architectural Features ◽

Shell Mounds ◽

Shell Rings ◽

Oriented Approach

Focusing on the southeastern United States, I provide some alternative perspectives on shell mounds previously interpreted as architectural features, temple mounds, and feasting sites. The same pattern of deposition often inferred to indicate mound construction—darker-colored, highly organic strata alternating with lighter-colored, shell-rich strata—can be accounted for by domestic midden accumulation and disposal of refuse away from living areas. Observed abundances of particular shell species can result from local or regional ecological conditions. Site complexes interpreted as architectural may have evolved largely in response to short-term climate changes. Shell rings on the Georgia and South Carolina coasts probably functioned to conserve and store unconfined water. To understand ancient shell mounds, we need a sediment-oriented approach to the study of mound deposits and more attention to the environmental contexts in which shell mounds accumulated.

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