17 research outputs found
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Arable weed seeds as indicators of regional cereal provenance: a case study from Iron Age and Roman central-southern Britain
The ability to provenance crop remains from archaeological sites remains an outstanding research question in archaeology. Archaeobotanists have previously identified the movement of cereals on the basis of regional variations in the presence of cereal grain, chaff and weed seeds (the consumer–producer debate), and weed seeds indicative of certain soil types, principally at Danebury hillfort. Whilst the former approach has been heavily criticised over the last decade, the qualitative methods of the latter have not been evaluated. The first interregional trade in cereals in Britain is currently dated to the Iron Age hillfort societies of the mid 1st millennium bc. Several centuries later, the development of urban settlements in the Late Iron Age and Roman period resulted in populations reliant on food which was produced elsewhere. Using the case study of central-southern Britain, centred on the oppidum (large fortified settlement) and civitas capital of Silchester, this paper presents the first regional quantitative analysis of arable weed seeds in order to identify the origin of the cereals consumed there. Analysis of the weed seeds which were present with the fine sieve by-products of the glume wheat Triticum spelta (spelt) shows that the weed floras of samples from diverse geological areas can be separated on the basis of the soil requirements of individual taxa. A preliminary finding is that, rather than being supplied with cereals from the wider landscape of the chalk region of the Hampshire Downs, the crops were grown close to Late Iron Age Silchester. The method presented here requires further high quality samples to evaluate this conclusion and other instances of cereal movement in the past
Holocene demographic fluctuations, climate and erosion in the Mediterranean: A meta data-analysis
As part of the Changing the Face of the Mediterranean Project, we consider how human pressure and concomitant erosion has affected a range of Mediterranean landscapes between the Neolithic and, in some cases, the post-medieval period. Part of this assessment comprises an investigation of relationships among palaeodemographic data, evidence for vegetation change and some consideration of rapid climate change events. The erosion data include recent or hitherto unpublished work from the authors. Where possible, we consider summed probabilities of 14C dates as well as the first published synthesis of all known optically stimulated luminescence dated sequences. The results suggest that while there were some periods when erosion took place contemporaneously across a number of regions, possibly induced by climate changes, more often than not, we see a complex and heterogeneous interplay of demographic and environmental changes that result in a mixed pattern of erosional activity across the Mediterranean
Tuning the composition of conductive thermoplastics for stiffness switching and electrically activated healing
Accounting for natural disasters from a historical perspective: A literature review and research agenda
Hydrological changes during the Roman Climatic Optimum in northern Tuscany (Central Italy) as evidenced by speleothem records and archaeological data
Addition of femoral 3-in-1 blockade to intra-articular ropivacaine 0.2% does not reduce analgesic requirements following arthroscopic knee surgery
Estimation of the thickness of anthropogenic deposits in historical urban centres: An interdisciplinary methodology applied to Rome (Italy)
In historical urban centres, the superimposition of excavation and deposition activities over time has resulted in an irregular spatial distribution of
anthropogenic deposits, which may reach considerable thicknesses. The detection of those thicknesses requires extensive investigations. Broad borehole
and geophysical campaigns cost time and money, consequently at the urban-planning level, it is usual to shift to an estimation of thicknesses, which may
be performed through map-algebra operations, that is, by subtracting from the modelled ground surface the elevation of the anthropogenic-deposit
basal surface. The latter is implemented through the interpolation of point elevation data, which are generally provided by borehole logs. Despite
the development of advanced spatial interpolation methodologies, previous modelling results in the literature show that if the process is affected by
insufficient input data, it produces imprecise interpolation outputs. This paper reports an interdisciplinary methodology aiming at enhancing elevation
datasets, in order to obtain more accurate digital elevation models. The increase in number and spatial distribution of input points is achieved through
past-landscape analyses mainly based on elevation data given by borehole logs, available archaeological reports and historical topographic maps, these
being generally available for historical urban centres. The methodology was tested in an urban sector of Rome, where significant activities have been
performed for millennia particularly during the Roman Age. A reliable model of the basal surface of the anthrostrata led to a better estimation of the
spatial distribution of such deposits and, in addition, revealed the original topographic surface, as modified by human activities