Plant Remains and AMS: Dating Climate Change in the Aeolian Islands (Northeastern Sicily) During the 2nd Millennium BC

Archaeological plant remains, used to establish a reliable chronology by radiocarbon dating, are used here to investigate trends in past rainfall intensity. The stable carbon isotope ratio in botanic remains depends on environmental conditions during the plant's life. By comparing the δ13C and 14C of selected plant specimens from 3 protohistoric sites in the Aeolian Archipelago, it is possible to identify short-term changes in the rainfall intensity during the 2nd millennium BC. The climate signals inferred from carbon isotope analyses are compared to pollen data for the region and are found to be consistent with changes in vegetal cover. Finally, the climate signals are integrated with the history of the Aeolian communities and the resilience of settlers is evaluated

The onset of faba bean farming in the Southern Levant

Even though the faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is among the most ubiquitously cultivated crops, very little is known about its origins. Here, we report discoveries of charred faba beans from three adjacent Neolithic sites in the lower Galilee region, in the southern Levant, that offer new insights into the early history of this species. Biometric measurements, radiocarbon dating and stable carbon isotope analyses of the archaeological remains, supported by experiments on modern material, date the earliest farming of this crop to ~10,200 cal BP. The large quantity of faba beans found in these adjacent sites indicates intensive production of faba beans in the region that can only have been achieved by planting non-dormant seeds. Selection of mutant-non-dormant stock suggests that the domestication of the crop occurred as early as the 11(th) millennium cal BP. Plant domestication| Vicia faba L.| Pre-Pottery Neolithic B| radiocarbon dating| Δ(13)C analysis

Landscape transformations at the dawn of agriculture in southern Syria (10.7–9.9 ka cal. BP): plant-specific responses to the impact of human activities and climate change

In southwest Asia, the accelerated impact of human activities on the landscape has often been linked to the development of fully agricultural societies during the middle and late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) period (around 10.2–7.9 ka cal. BP). This work contributes to the debate on the environmental impact of the so-called Neolitisation process by identifying the climatic and anthropogenic factors that contributed to change local and regional vegetation at the time when domesticated plants appeared and developed in southern Syria (around 10.7–9.9 ka cal. BP). In this work a multidisciplinary analysis of plant microremains (pollen and phytoliths) and macroremains (wood charcoal) is carried out along with stable carbon isotope discrimination of wood charcoals in an early PPNB site (Tell Qarassa North, west of the Jabal al-Arab area). Prior to 10.5 ka cal. BP, the results indicate a dynamic equilibrium in the local and regional vegetation, which comprised woodland-steppe, Mediterranean evergreen oak-woodlands, wetland vegetation and coniferous forests. Around 10.5–9.9 ka cal. BP, the elements that regulated the vegetation system changed, resulting in reduced proportions of arboreal cover and the spread of cold-tolerant and wetlands species. Our data show that reinforcing interaction between the elements of the anthropogenic (e.g. herding, fire-related activities) and climatic systems (e.g. temperature, rainfall) contributed to the transformation of early Holocene vegetation during the emergence of fully agricultural societies in southern Syria

What can crop stable isotopes ever do for us? An experimental perspective on using crop carbon stable isotope values for reconstructing water availability in semi-arid and arid environments

This study re-assesses and refines the use of crop carbon stable isotopes (Δ13C) to reconstruct past water availability. Durum wheat, six-row barley, and sorghum were experimentally grown at three crop growing stations in Jordan for up to three years under five different irrigation regimes: 0% (rainfall only), 40%, 80%, 100%, and 120% of the crops’ optimum water requirements. Results show large variation in carbon stable isotopes for crops that received similar amounts of water, either as absolute water input or as percentage of crop requirements. We conclude that C3 crop carbon stable isotope composition can therefore be best interpreted in terms of extremely high values showing an abundance of water versus low values indicating water-stress. Values in between these extremes are problematic and best interpreted in conjunction with other proxies. C4 crop isotopes were not found to be useful for the reconstruction of water availability

Le plan de gestion des données (Data Management Plan) en archéologie : des principes à la pratique

Developing an effective method for recording the data produced, sharing it, and preserving it are essential tasks of the archaeological profession. Although international and national rules are in place, archiving archaeological data is often left to the discretion of the archaeologist in charge of the excavation. It is essential that data management be developed in accordance with the FAIR principles to make data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (hence the acronym FAIR). Granting agencies, such as the European Research Council and several National Research Funds, require a data management plan as soon as applications for project contributions are submitted. The plan is intended to promote the use of datasets by specifying the standards that will be used to organize the data and metadata and the digital repositories where they will be kept. The plan is also used to define permissions for access to the dataset. From this perspective, archaeologists are expected to make excavation data accessible and interoperable in accordance with the rules specific to their research domain. The purpose of this article is to review the application of FAIR principles in data management plans developed by archaeological projects. First, we will describe the steps necessary to publish archaeological information on the Semantic Web, then we will examine the laws and standards for archiving archaeological data, and then we will review the most commonly used archival systems in the field. In the final section of the article, we will discuss the topic of the data management plan and propose best practices to follow in developing an archaeological data management plan. The set of practices presented will be useful to researchers in managing the life cycle of data from archaeological research