Compression and Creep of Venice Lagoon Sands

A laboratory test program was conducted to evaluate the one-dimensional (1D) compression and creep properties of intact sand (and silty-sand) samples from a deep borehole at the Malamocco Inlet to the Venice Lagoon. The tests were performed with a constant rate of strain consolidometer and included special procedures for trimming the frozen samples and measuring strains during thawing and backpressure saturation. The specimens had variable fine fractions ranging from 6 to 21% and mica contents ranging from 1 to 10%. The results confirmed that there is a strong correlation between the creep rate coefficient and the compressibility index and between the swelling index and mica content. The compression behavior in all tests is well described by a nonlinear compression model with a unique limiting compression curve and a variable transition parameter that reflects the fines and mica content. Creep tests performed at different confining pressures are also well represented by a simple two-parameter model

Maps from Mud - using the Multiple Scenario Approach to reconstruct land cover dynamics from pollen records:A case study of two Neolithic landscapes

Pollen records contain a wide range of information about past land cover, but translation from the pollen diagram to other formats remains a challenge. In this paper, we present LandPolFlow, a software package enabling Multiple Scenario Approach (MSA) based land cover reconstruction from pollen records for specific landscapes. It has two components: a basic Geographic Information System which takes grids of landscape constraints (e.g. topography, geology) and generates possible 'scenarios' of past land cover using a combination of probabilistic and deterministic placement rules to distribute defined plant communities within the landscape, and a pollen dispersal and deposition model which simulates pollen loading at specified points within each scenario and compares that statistically with actual pollen assemblages from the same location. Goodness of fit statistics from multiple pollen site locations are used to identify which scenarios are likely reconstructions of past land cover. We apply this approach to two case studies of Neolithisation in Britain, the first from the Somerset Levels and the second from Mainland, Orkney. Both landscapes contain significant evidence of Neolithic activity, but present contrasting contexts. In Somerset, wet-preserved Neolithic remains such as trackways are abundant, but little dry land settlement archaeology is known, and the pre-Neolithic landscape was extensively wooded. In Orkney, the Neolithic archaeology includes domestic and monumental stone-built structures forming a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the pre-Neolithic landscape was largely treeless. Existing pollen records were collated from both landscapes and correlated within a new age model framework (presented elsewhere). This allowed pollen data to be grouped into 200 year periods, or “timeslices”, for reconstruction of land cover through time using the MSA. Reconstruction suggests that subtle but clear and persistent impacts of Neolithisation on land cover occurred in both landscapes, with no reduction in impact during periods when archaeological records suggest lower activity levels.By applying the methodology to specific landscapes, we critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses and identify potential remedies, which we then expand into consideration of how simulation can be incorporated into palynological research practice. We argue that the MSA deserves a place within the palynologist’s standard tool kit

Zusammenfassung: Die Toten vereinen: Temporalität und Organisation des neolithi-schen Hypogäums von Les Mournouards II (Marne, France)

Why were large collectivities of the dead a widespread feature of the later fourth millennium cal BC in western Europe? The hypogée or artificial cave of Les Mournouards II in the Marne region, northern France, where remains of 79 people were deposited in two chambers, is used to address this and related questions. Bayesian modelling of 29 newly obtained radiocarbon dates places the construction of the tomb in the 34th or 33rd centuries cal BC, with a use-life which could be as little as 100 years. The results indicate that the two chambers were used concurrently, distinctions between them being attributable to their use by different social groupings, as hypothesised by the excavator, André Leroi-Gourhan. The probably short life of this tomb suggests that clusters of hypogées in general could reflect the use of successive tombs by the same groups. The character of the tomb is discussed in general terms of anxieties about territory and numbers of people, threats of dispersal and the maintenance of community. Diversity within collective burial practices in the Paris basin is examined, and a series of specific differences between hypogées and allées sépulcrales are explored

House time: Neolithic settlement development at Racot during the 5th millennium cal b.c. in the Polish lowlands

The settlement of Racot 18 in the western Polish lowlands is used as a case study in the investigation of continued development and expansion following initial Neolithic beginnings, and in the formal chronological modelling, in a Bayesian framework, of settlement development. The site belongs to the Late Lengyel culture of the later fifth millennium cal BC, and represents the intake of new land following earlier initial colonisation. The formally estimated chronology for the settlement suggests spans for individual house biographies from as little as a generation to over a century; distinctive substantial buildings, from late in the sequence, may have lasted longest. Racot 18 is compared to its formally modelled context of the later fifth millennium cal BC

Seeking the Holy Grail: robust chronologies from archaeology and radiocarbon dating combined

The strengths of formal Bayesian chronological modelling are restated, combining as it does knowledge of the archaeology with the radiocarbon dating of carefully chosen samples of known taphonomy in association with diagnostic material culture. The risks of dating bone samples are reviewed, along with a brief history of the development of approaches to the radiocarbon dating of bone. In reply to Strien (2017), selected topics concerned with the emergence and aftermath of the LBK are discussed, as well as the early Vin≠a, Ra∫i∏te and Hinkelstein sequences. The need for rigour in an approach which combines archaeology and radiocarbon dating is underlined

The Alsónyék story: towards the history of a persistent place

First paragraph: The papers presented above in this volume have provided formally modelled date estimates for the development of Alsónyék, phase by phase, from the Starčevo to the Lengyel periods. In this final discussion paper, we now aim, first, to bring together all the chapters of the long story into a single narrative, and to attempt a detailed interpretation of its long persistence, which is of a kind so far rather unfamiliar in prehistory. That enables us, secondly, to discuss the Alsónyék story in more interpretive terms, in relation to notions of persistent place, community, aggregation and coalescence, and with an eye on the broader tempo of change. In doing this, we will tack between the site-specific evidence from Alsónyék and wider comparisons from ethnography and recent history, far beyond Transdanubia in both time and space. Thirdly, we will use our formally modelled date estimates from the Lengyel period at Alsónyék to trace the intensity of occupation and of the trajectory of population increase and decline at the site. In discussing the dramatic growth of the settlement in the Lengyel period, we will also, finally, consider some of its possible causes and conditions, but this has to be seen in the context of the ongoing post-excavation research of the Alsónyék project, in which it is important to underline that many basic analyses still remain to be completed. We will end, nonetheless, by looking ahead to key research questions for the future

Opening the Woods: Towards a Quantification of Neolithic Clearance Around the Somerset Levels and Moors

Environmental reconstructions from pollen records collected within archaeological landscapes have traditionally taken a broadly narrative approach, with few attempts made at hypothesis testing or formal assessment of uncertainty. This disjuncture between the traditional interpretive approach to palynological data and the requirement for detailed, locally specific reconstructions of the landscapes in which people lived has arguably hindered closer integration of palaeoecological and archaeological datasets in recent decades. Here we implement a fundamentally different method for reconstructing past land cover from pollen records to the landscapes of and around the Somerset Levels and Moors — the Multiple Scenario Approach (MSA) — to reconstruct land cover for a series of 200-year timeslices covering the period 4200–2000 cal BC. Modelling of both archaeological and sediment chronologies enables integration of reconstructed changes in land cover with archaeological evidence of contemporary Neolithic human activity. The MSA reconstructions are presented as a series of land cover maps and as graphs of quantitative measures of woodland clearance tracked over time. Our reconstructions provide a more nuanced understanding of the scale and timing of Neolithic clearance than has previously been available from narrative based interpretations of pollen data. While the archaeological record tends to promote a view of long-term continuity in terms of the persistent building of wooden structures in the wetlands, our new interpretation of the palynological data contributes a more dynamic and varying narrative. Our case study demonstrates the potential for further integration of archaeological and palynological datasets, enabling us to get closer to the landscapes in which people lived

Island questions: the chronology of the Brochtorff Circle at Xagħra, Gozo, and its significance for the Neolithic sequence on Malta

Bayesian chronological modelling of radiocarbon dates from the Brochtorff Circle at Xagħra, Gozo, Malta (achieved through the ToTL and FRAGSUS projects), provides a more precise chronology for the sequence of development and use of a cave complex. Artefacts show that the site was in use from the Żebbuġ period of the late 5th/early 4th millennium cal BC to the Tarxien Cemetery phase of the later 3rd/early 2nd millennia cal BC. Absolutely dated funerary activity, however, starts with a small rock-cut tomb, probably in use in the mid to late fourth millennium cal BC, in the Ġgantija period. After an interval of centuries, burial resumed on a larger scale, probably in the 30th century cal BC, associated with Tarxien cultural material, with the use of the cave for collective burial and other depositions, with a series of structures, most notably altar-like settings built from massive stone slabs, which served to monumentalise the space. This process continued at intervals until the deposition of the last burials, probably in the 24th century cal BC; ceremonial activity may have ended at this time or a little later, to be followed by occupation in the Tarxien Cemetery period. The implications for the development of Neolithic society on Malta are discussed, as well as the changing character of Neolithic Malta in comparison to contemporary communities in Sicily, peninsular Italy and southern Iberia. It is argued that underground settings and temples on Malta may have served to reinforce locally important values of cooperation and consensus, against a wider tide of differentiation and accumulation, but that there could also have been increasing control of the treatment of the dead through time. The end of the Maltese Neolithic is also briefly discussed

The value of teaching increases with tool complexity in cumulative cultural evolution

Human cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) is recognized as a powerful ecological and evolutionary force, but its origins are poorly understood. The long-standing view that CCE requires specialized social learning processes such as teaching has recently come under question, and cannot explain why such processes evolved in the first place. An alternative, but largely untested, hypothesis is that these processes gradually coevolved with an increasing reliance on complex tools. To address this, we used large-scale transmission chain experiments (624 participants), to examine the role of different learning processes in generating cumulative improvements in two tool types of differing complexity. Both tool types increased in efficacy across experimental generations, but teaching only provided an advantage for the more complex tools. Moreover, while the simple tools tended to converge on a common design, the more complex tools maintained a diversity of designs. These findings indicate that the emergence of cumulative culture is not strictly dependent on, but may generate selection for, teaching. As reliance on increasingly complex tools grew, so too would selection for teaching, facilitating the increasingly open-ended evolution of cultural artefacts