scholarly journals DECODING AN EARLY HOLOCENE SAHARAN STRATIFIED SITE. CERAMIC DISPERSION AND SITE FORMATION PROCESSES IN THE TAKARKORI ROCK-SHELTER, ACACUS MOUNTAINS, LIBYA

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Biagetti ◽  
Francesca Merighi ◽  
Savino di Lernia
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Ceramic Analysis ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
History Of ◽  
Pastoral Neolithic

The surface pottery from a well-preserved Holocene archaeological site in south-western Libya is analysed. The collection suggests a long and protracted human occupation of the shelter, from Late Acacus (Mesolithic) hunter-gatherers to Late Pastoral (Neolithic) herders. Aim of the work is to decode the dynamic history of the site via the study of its surface elements, both artefacts and ecofacts, and the way they interacted over the millennia. To do this, traditional ceramic analysis is combined with recently developed methods of description imported from sedimentology, stressing the potentialities of surface archaeological material. In this framework, spatial analysis of scattered potsherds, in connection with their quantitative and qualitative features and chronological attribution, appears of main relevance in the analysis of site formation processes and postdepositional events that altered the archaeological deposit, transforming its present surface.

scholarly journals The Potential of Micromammals for the Stratigraphy and the Timing of Human Occupations at La Roche-à-Pierrot (Saint-Césaire, France)

Quaternary ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Loïc Lebreton ◽  
Eugène Morin ◽  
Brad Gravina ◽  
Alexandre Michel ◽  
François Bachellerie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequence ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Taphonomic Analysis

As micromammals are highly sensitive to changes in their habitat, variations in species representation are often used to reconstruct local environmental conditions. However, taphonomic aspects of micromammals are often overlooked, despite the fact that they can provide important information for our understanding of archaeological sites. La Roche-à-Pierrot, Saint-Césaire, is a major archaeological site for our understanding of the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition in Western Europe. Clearly documenting site formation processes, the post-depositional reworking of deposits and the sequence of human occupations is fundamental for providing a secure archaeostratigraphic context of the site. The exceptionally large accumulation of micromammals from recently excavated stratigraphic units at the site makes it possible to track variations in the density of micromammals across the stratigraphic sequence. The taphonomic analysis of micromammals demonstrates these variations are not related to a change in the main accumulation agent or post-depositional phenomena. A negative correlation between small mammal remains and archaeological material suggests that peaks in micromammal densities can potentially be correlated with periods when the site was abandoned or when human occupation was less intense, and therefore provide new data for interpreting the Saint-Césaire stratigraphic sequence.

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.

Identifying the Brazil nut effect in archaeological site formation processes

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Luria ◽  
Alexander Fantalkin ◽  
Ezra Zilberman ◽  
Eyal Ben-Dor
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Brazil Nut ◽  
Brazil Nut Effect

Archaeological site formation processes in northwestern Patagonia, Mendoza Province, Argentina

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 605-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonsina Tripaldi ◽  
Marcelo A. Zárate ◽  
Gustavo A. Neme ◽  
Adolfo F. Gil ◽  
Miguel Giardina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes

Soil Genesis and Site-Formation Processes

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vance T. Holliday
Keyword(s):  
Soil Formation ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Natural Formation ◽  
Pedogenic Processes

Pedogenic processes that produce or alter the soils associated with a landscape (buried or unburied) also modify the archaeological sites and other traces of human activity associated with that landscape and buried landscapes. The wide range of processes that form soils can profoundly affect the archaeological record. Pedogenesis, therefore, is an important component of the processes of archaeological site formation. Archaeological “site-formation processes” are those processes that modify artifacts and archaeological sites from the moment they were formed until they are uncovered by archaeologists (Stein, 2001b, pp. 37–38). Understanding formation processes is crucial in archaeology because archaeologists use the patterns of artifacts in the ground to infer behaviors. Formation processes identify patterns that are created by ancient behaviors and separate those patterns from the ones created by later cultural and natural processes (Stein, 2001b, p. 37). In his influential volume Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record, Schiffer (1987, p. 7) notes that archaeologists try to infer past behavior based on the archaeological record, but the record “must be handled with great care by the investigator seeking to infer past behaviors, for the evidence that survives has been changed in many ways by a variety of processes.” These processes introduce variability and ambiguity into the archaeological record. Schiffer (1987, p. 7) further distinguishes between cultural processes, in which the agency of transformation is human behavior, and noncultural processes, which stem from processes of the natural environment. Natural formation processes are many and varied and include plants, animals, wind, water, ice, and gravity, among others. Soil formation is also identified as an important process of site formation. Schiffer (1987) provides a comprehensive discussion of natural site-formation processes, which are summarized by Stein (2001b). Nash and Petraglia (1987) and Goldberg et al. (1993) also provide a number of case histories of natural formation processes identified at archaeological sites. Because soil formation represents the alteration of rock and sediment (chapter 1), pedogenic processes are important natural processes in the formation of archaeological sites. Other weathering processes that are significant in site formation can be grouped as “diagenetic alterations.”

Soils and Landscape Evolution

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vance T. Holliday
Keyword(s):  
Landscape Evolution ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
External Component ◽  
A Site

Soils and archaeological sites are intimately related to the landscape. Investigating soils across past and present landscapes provides a means of reconstructing and understanding the regional environmental and geomorphic context of archaeological site settings and specific site locations, regional site formation processes, and aspects of the resources available to people in a region. Archaeological sites tend to occupy small segments of the landscape, but human activity may affect a much larger area, and in any case, people wander far and wide from sites, interacting with the environment—including the landscape. Thus, no matter whether a site is just a lithic scatter or bone bed or if it is a tell, understanding the regional landscape is an important part of understanding a site and human behavior, and soils are an important means of understanding a landscape. Soils are also important in reconstructing the evolution of landscapes and, consequently, the evolution of archaeological sites. That is, landscape evolution is an important external component of site-formation processes. Landscapes form the physical framework or underpinning for people and their activities and their resulting sites. As landscapes evolve, so do human activities and so do sites. Soils are key to recognizing and interpreting the evolutionary processes that shape the landscape and associated archaeological sites. Furthermore, the concept of landscape evolution also 1) is a logical continuation of the discussion of soil stratigraphy (chapters 5, 6) because it places soil stratigraphy in three or even four dimensions; 2) is a complement to the discussion of soils as environmental indicators (chapter 8), because landscape evolution can be linked to environmental change and because the evolution of the landscape itself, regardless of changes in other factors, represents a change in the environment from a human perspective; and 3) provides yet another means for predicting site locations. The discussion in this section, therefore, represents an integration of some of the principals outlined previously. Some of the studies presented in other chapters, such as the work on the Loess Plateau of China (chapters 6 and 8), and at Harappa and along the Ravi River (chapter 4), are good examples of landscape reconstructions for very large regions and are not repeated here.

scholarly journals New data from the Middle Palaeolithic Cotencher cave (Swiss Jura): site formation, environment, and chronology

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judit Deák ◽  
Frank Preusser ◽  
Marie-Isabelle Cattin ◽  
Jean-Christophe Castel ◽  
François-Xavier Chauvière
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Frozen Ground ◽  
Swiss Jura ◽  
Interdisciplinary Study

Abstract. Cotencher cave is one of the oldest Palaeolithic sites of Switzerland and is known for its rich faunal and Mousterian artefacts, the latter suggesting one or several passages of Neanderthal hunter–gatherer tribes. This interdisciplinary study summarises novel data concerning site formation processes and anthropic attendance of the site. While the lithic artefacts indicate tool production at the site, the faunal remains do not yield any evidence of a link to human occupation. The sedimentary sequence permits us to unravel several important environmental changes that occurred during the Late Pleistocene. The presence of a local glacier around 70 ka (Marine Isotope Stage, MIS 4) is revealed followed by ice-free conditions characterised by alternating soil formation processes and landscape destabilisation during MIS 3. Solifluction processes suggesting recurrent frozen ground were responsible for the displacements of part of the artefacts and faunal remains. Evidence of local glacier development around 36 ka is related to the particular geomorphological conditions of the studied region and shed new light on the complexity of glacier dynamics. The recognition and dating of recurrent hostile glacier landscapes might contribute to understanding the reasons for the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic attendance hiatuses known in the studied region.

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