scholarly journals Indigenous built structures and anthropogenic impacts on the stratigraphy of Northern Australian rockshelters: insights from Malarakk 1, north western Arnhem Land

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daryl Wesley ◽  
Mirani Litster ◽  
Ian Moffat ◽  
Sue O’Connor
Keyword(s):  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
Bone Contact ◽  
Contact Materials ◽  
Arnhem Land ◽  
North Western

Malarrak 1 is currently the northernmost excavated rockshelter on the Australian mainland, located in the Wellington Range in north western Arnhem Land. The site contains a rich late Holocene deposit, with extensive contact rock art, stone artefacts, shell, bone, contact materials, ancestral human remains, and other cultural material. Excavation of the Malarrak 1 rockshelter and analysis of its sediments revealed many impacts on site formation processes within the deposit. We attribute the disturbance to possible erosion or sediment deposition during periods of intense rainfall and also to the construction of timber structures within the site. This is supported by modern and historical observations and is the focus of this paper. The extent of the disturbance to Malarrak 1 provides a cautionary tale for other excavations in the region that may be affected by similar Indigenous site occupation, as these anthropogenic activities enhance the risk of further impacts arising from biological and geomorphological processes that can impinge on the stratigraphic integrity of the cultural deposits.

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 Archaeological Record

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manjil Hazarika
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Northeast India ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Site Structure ◽  
Reserve Forest ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Ways Of Life

This chapter elaborates the data and results of the explorations conducted in the Garbhanga Reserve Forest. The area has been intensively surveyed for the location of potential archaeological sites and the collection of ethnographic data in order to draw direct historical analogies. An ‘area-approach’ study has been conducted in order to formulate a general model for archaeological site structure, locations, geomorphic situations, and site formation processes that can be used for archaeological study in the hilly landscape of Northeast India. Present-day agricultural implements have been analysed and compared with Neolithic implements in order to reconstruct ancient farming culture by way of undertaking systematic study of modern peasant ways of life in the study area. The ideological significance of stone artefacts as ‘thunderstone’ in Northeast India and among the Karbis has also been discussed.

Quantifying the threat to archaeological sites from the erosion of cultivated soil

Antiquity ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (309) ◽  
pp. 658-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Wilkinson ◽  
Andrew Tyler ◽  
Donald Davidson ◽  
Ian Grieve
Keyword(s):  
World Wide ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Know How ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nuclear Weapons Testing ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Soil Movements

Ploughing is probably the greatest agent of attrition to archaeological sites world-wide. In every country, every year, a bit more is shaved off buried strata and a bit more of the past becomes unreadable. On the other hand, people must eat and crops must be planted. How can the fields be best managed to get the best of both worlds? Perhaps the most pressing need for resource managers is to know how quickly a particular field is eroding: negotiation and protection is then possible. Up to now that has been difficult to measure.The new procedure presented here, which draws on the unexpected benefits of nuclear weapons testing, shows how variation in the concentration of the radioisotope 137Cs can be used to monitor soil movements over the last 40 years. The measurements allow a site's ‘life expectancy’ to be calculated, and there are some promising dividends for tracking site formation processes.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document