The Middle Holocene ‘funerary avenues’ of north-west Arabia

The desert regions of the Arabian Peninsula and Levant are criss-crossed by innumerable pathways. Across large areas of north-west Arabia, many of these pathways are flanked by stone monuments, the vast majority of which are ancient tombs. Recent radiometric dating indicates that the most abundant of these monuments, elaborate and morphologically diverse ‘pendant’ structures, were constructed during the mid-to-late third millennium BCE. Thousands of kilometres of these composite path and monument features, ‘funerary avenues’, can be traced across the landscape, especially around and between major perennial water sources. By evidencing routes of human movement during this period, these features provide an emerging source for reconstructing important aspects of ancient mobility and social and economic connectivity. They also provide significant new evidence for human/environment interactions and subsistence strategies during the later Middle Holocene of north-west Arabia, and suggest the parallel existence of mobile pastoralist lifeways and more permanent, oasis-centred settlement. This paper draws upon the results of recent excavations and intensive remote sensing, aerial and ground surveys in Saudi Arabia to present the first detailed examination of these features and the vast cultural landscape that they constitute.

Permian Ages of “Younger Granites” from Mounio Province (Gouré area, Southeastern Niger)

African formations intruded by the “Younger Granites” ring complex. In the study area, the “Younger Granites” are represented by volcanic to acid plutonic rocks with hyperalkaline trends (pyroclastic rocks, rhyolites, microgranites, granites, syenites), forming in the North, a circular structure called Gouré ring complex. Preliminary geochronological datings of the Mounio granites have yielded Carboniferous ages. However, recent investigations carried out in this province have identified structures similar to Pan-African deformation structures, such as folds and several generations of schistosity/foliation. Analysis of the relationship between deformation and magmatism has removed any ambiguity regarding the relative age of the deformation. This study focuses on the radiometric dating of the “Younger Granites” of Gouré area, in order to update the geochronological data. Thus, three samples (pyroclastitic rock, rhyolite, microgranite) were dated by the K-Ar method on total rock using a mass spectrometertype MI 1201 IG. Radiometric dating results assign a Lower Permian age (293-287 Ma) to the “Younger Granites” Ring Complex of the Mounio Province in Niger, classically considered to be Carboniferous in age.

Place, space and time: resolving Quaternary records

Principles of place, space and time can frame an understanding of the context and interpretation of Quaternary palaeo-records, and this is particularly the case for the varied proxies used for late Quaternary climate and environmental reconstruction in southern Africa. Place refers to the specific topographic setting or context of any one record, which has implications for the operation of physical processes in the landscape that control the accumulation of different records. Space refers to the spatial scale or footprint of any one record or proxy, and this varies from one proxy to another. Time refers to not only the time period covered by individual records, but also the temporal resolution of the record, which depends on accumulation rates and availability and quality of any radiometric dating. These three principles are discussed specifically in the context of the Quaternary of southern Africa and through the papers that form this special issue, but are also relevant globally. Future research directions in Quaternary research in southern Africa are identified, including opportunities for refining regional chronostratigraphies.

The Brazilian Pareiasaur Revisited

Provelosaurus americanus is the only known representative of the Pareiasauria in the Americas. This mid-size pareiasaur from the Rio do Rasto Formation of southern Brazil has been traditionally considered to be related to smaller forms from the South African Karoo known as the “dwarf pareiasaurs” of Lopingian age. P. americanus, however, co-existed with dinocephalians, which indicates a Guadalupian age. New fossils provide a nearly complete osteological account that forms the basis for a revised diagnosis and a test of phylogenetic relationships of P. americanus. Our results offer further support to the hypothesis that the Brazilian pareiasaur is the sister taxon of the Karoo “dwarf pareiasaurs,” being the earliest member of this group and one of the oldest pareiasaurs known so far. This is reinforced by a radiometric dating of the Morro Pelado Member of the Rio do Rasto Formation. In addition, the association of four individuals of various ontogenetic stages at the type locality supports some degree of social behavior in P. americanus.

A Monumental Horse Burial in the Armenian Highlands

Here we report on the unprecedented discovery of the complete skeleton of a ritually interred adult stallion with a bronze ring in its mouth. The horse was buried in a unique 15-meters diameter monumental stone-built tomb excavated in the Aghavnatun necropolis located on the southern slopes of Mt. Aragats, in the northern fringes of the Ararat Depression, Republic of Armenia. The tumulus was roughly circular; the horse’s remains were found in situ, in an inner oval-shaped structure. Our methodological procedure included a detailed description of the burial, a taphonomic study of the bones, and meticulous morphometric observations and measurements, and thus we could provide a taxonomic defi nition and an age estimate. Direct radiometric dating of the horse’s skeleton provided a date of 2130±20 BP. The morphological characteristics of the horse, with its tall stature and slender feet, suggest that it was a large individual, similar to the extinct breed of Nisean horse previously known mainly from textual and iconographical sources. The metal ring found in the mouth of the horse suggests that it likely served as a breeding stallion. This discovery presents a unique combination of zooarchaeological evidence for the importance of the horse in the Parthian-Hellenistic worlds, and advances our understanding of the broad social signifi cance of the past breeding of equids in the Armenian Highlands.

The krathis lake, one century of evolution.

A riverbed swamp in the Krathis River, N. Peloponnese, is studied and analyzed geomorphologicaly. Our analysis is also based on sedimentological, geochemical, palaeontological and radiometric dating data which enabled the investigation of the possible relationship between the studied swamp and the 1913 Tsivlos landslide. Sedimentological analysis showed that the current sedimentation is dominated by fine grain material and occasional coarse-grained beds. Micropalaeontological analysis indicated that the deeper layers of the core are barren, while the upper ones contain fresh water ostracods suggesting hydrodynamically a progressively more stable environment. In accordance, radiocarbon C14 and 137Cs dating showed a progressively decreasing sedimentation rate over the last fifty years. The results of this study show that the Tsivlos landslide is not the only cause for the formation of the modern swamp. Tectonic movements in the area seem to play a decisive role causing uplift and subsidence in the area near an active fault.

Radiochemical separation and purification of non-carrier-added silicon-32

32Si (T 1/2 = 153(19) y) is an extremely rare, naturally-occurring isotope that has been considered as a geochronometer suitable for radiometric dating over the time span from 100 to 1000 years ago – a time span that has proved rather difficult to explore in this manner. Past attempts to determine the 32Si half-life have resulted in a wide range of values possessing significant uncertainties because only low-activity samples could be made available for such measurements. Utilizing the 590 MeV ring cyclotron at PSI, megabecquerel quantities of 32Si have been produced by exposing metallic vanadium discs to high-energy protons in order to induce spallation. A radiochemical separation procedure has been successfully developed and applied to the irradiated discs as part of the SINCHRON project, based on a combination of ion-exchange and extraction resins. The process was shown to be reliable and robust with a high chemical yield. Radiochemically pure 32Si solutions with activity concentrations of up to several kBq/g can be produced to perform individual measurements (AMS, ICP-MS, LSC) for various studies. Thus, a careful redetermination of the 32Si half-life has become feasible to begin the first steps toward the confident implementation of this radionuclide for geochronological purposes.

Supplemental Material: Late Cenozoic tephrochronology of the Mount Diablo area within the evolving plate-tectonic boundary zone of northern California

Terminology relating to tephra and tephra layer nomenclature, methods of sampling tephra in the field, laboratory treatment of tephra samples for analysis, methods of chemical analysis of tephra and radiometric dating (40Ar/39Ar), and methods of data evaluation<br>

Supplemental Material: Late Cenozoic tephrochronology of the Mount Diablo area within the evolving plate-tectonic boundary zone of northern California

Terminology relating to tephra and tephra layer nomenclature, methods of sampling tephra in the field, laboratory treatment of tephra samples for analysis, methods of chemical analysis of tephra and radiometric dating (40Ar/39Ar), and methods of data evaluation<br>