Special External Effects on Fluvial System Evolution

Rivers are an excellent witness of the dynamics affecting Earth’s surface due to their sedimentary products and morphological expression, which may be considered as fluvial archives. Until now, the focus has been on evaluating the general impact of individual external factors. However, the importance of the specific environmental characteristics of these factors has become increasingly recognized, as highlighted in recent case studies. For example, the effects of regional climate, differentiated topography and vegetation, and frozen ground appear to play an essential role in the evolution of the fluvial system. Integration of such environmental conditions in the processes that were active within the complex fluvial system will open new perspectives in our progressive understanding of the evolution of landscape form, ecology, sediment fluxes, and hydrology of the system within the framework of the external drivers such as tectonics, general climate, and human activity. This is an appealing challenge that we wish to address in the present Special Issue under the aegis of the Fluvial Archives Group (FLAG)

The Quaternary sequence of the Nahr el Kebir, NW Syria: An important repository for evidence of Palaeolithic occupation and landscape evolution in the eastern Mediterranean

The third largest river in Syria, the Nahr el Kebir has a well-preserved record of river-terrace deposits that have produced substantial Palaeolithic artefact assemblages both from within the terrace deposits and from the land surfaces above and around them. At the Mediterranean coastline, the fluvial gravels interdigitate with raised shoreline terrace deposits, providing an insight into the temporal and climatic relations of both of these important geomorphological and morphostratigraphical archives, as well as their relationship with each other. New research is reported here on the Pleistocene geology and geomorphology of the Nahr el Kebir and the associated Palaeolithic archaeology, the latter having been reinterpreted based on reassessment of museum collections arising from earlier detailed work. Field visits revealed an additional, hitherto unrecognized low-level river terrace, whereas one of the previously recognized Palaeolithic levels can be shown to coincide with slope deposits that armour hilltops rather than representing a genuine fluvial formation. The new understanding of these geomorphological and sedimentary archives supports ideas that this corner of the Mediterranean has experienced unusually rapid uplift during the recent Quaternary, as a result of which the local rivers, including the Kebir, have deepened their valleys rapidly. Consequently, only the recent part of the Quaternary is recorded in the Kebir system and the ages envisaged previously for the terrace deposits and the Palaeolithic artefact assemblages were considerable overestimates in many cases, a finding that has significance for their correlation with those from the wider region. Reassessment of the Palaeolithic archaeology suggests a settlement history initially dominated by groups using handaxes, alongside simple core working (0.5–0.3 Ma), followed by a major change with the appearance of Levallois core working alongside handaxes, marking the transition to the early Middle Palaeolithic

Drainage evolution in the Polish Sudeten Foreland in the context of European fluvial archives

Detailed study of subsurface deposits in the Polish Sudeten Foreland, particularly with reference to provenance data, has revealed that an extensive preglacial drainage system developed there in the Pliocene–Early Pleistocene, with both similarities and differences in comparison with the present-day Odra (Oder) system. This foreland is at the northern edge of an intensely deformed upland, metamorphosed during the Variscan orogeny, with faulted horsts and grabens reactivated in the Late Cenozoic. The main arm of preglacial drainage of this area, at least until the early Middle Pleistocene, was the Palaeo–Nysa Kłodzka, precursor of the Odra left-bank tributary of that name. Significant preglacial evolution of this drainage system can be demonstrated, including incision into the landscape, prior to its disruption by glaciation in the Elsterian (Sanian) and again in the early Saalian (Odranian), which resulted in burial of the preglacial fluvial archives by glacial and fluvioglacial deposits. No later ice sheets reached the area, in which the modern drainage pattern became established, the rivers incising afresh into the landscape and forming post-Saalian terrace systems. Issues of compatibility of this record with the progressive uplift implicit in the formation of conventional terrace systems are examined, with particular reference to crustal properties, which are shown to have had an important influence on landscape and drainage evolution in the region

Making a U-turn on the Purfleet Interchange: Stone Tool Technology in Marine Isotope Stage 9 Britain and the Emergence of the Middle Palaeolithic in Europe

This paper re-examines earlier Palaeolithic core technology from British sites assigned to MIS 11, 9, and 7 using primarily a châine opératoire approach, with the objective of better understanding the earliest occurrence and distribution of Levallois and other prepared-core technologies across the Old World. Contrary to previous interpretations (White and Ashton in Current Anthropology, 44: 598–609, 2003), we find no evidence for a true Levallois concept in MIS 11 or MIS 9 in Britain. Cores previously described as ‘simple prepared cores’ or ‘proto-Levallois’ cores show neither evidence of core management nor predetermination of the resulting flakes. They can instead be explained as the coincidental result of a simpler technological scheme aimed at exploiting the largest surface area of a core, thereby maximising the size of the flakes produced from it. This may be a more widespread practice, or a local solution derived from existing principles. Levallois appears fully formed in Britain during terminal MIS 8/initial MIS 7. Consequently, Britain does not provide evidence for an in situ evolution of Levallois, rather we argue it was introduced by new settlers after a glacial abandonment: the solution to the emergence and significance of Levallois lies in southern Europe, the Levant and Africa

The connections between river terraces and slope deposits as paleoclimate proxies: the Guadalaviar - Turia sequence (Eastern, Iberia Chain, Spain)

This study, focused on the well-exposed terrace deposits of the Guadalaviar and Turia rivers and associated slopes, provides a better understanding of the genetic connection between river-terrace sediments and slope accumulations in a setting influenced by temperate to cold (extraglacial) climates: the Sierra de Albarracín and Alfambra–Teruel depression (Iberian Chain, eastern Spain). The terrace system comprises seven levels, Qt1 to Qt7. In the two older levels (Qt2 and Qt3) lateral connections with thick stratified slope screes were observed. The lower terraces (Qt4 to Qt7) have less expressive slope deposits. New Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) ages, using quartz-OSL and pIRIR290, were obtained from these Quaternary deposits. Qt2 is dated ~310 to 270 ky (Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 9–8); Qt3 dates from ~175 to 150 ky (MIS 6), Qt4 from ~136 to 80 ky (MIS 5e–a) and Qt5 from ~23 ky (MIS 2); Qt6 has a tufa dated to 10–4.6 ky (early–middle Holocene), while Qt7 probably records the last 4 ky (late Holocene). The thick slope deposits connected with the upper parts of the Qt2 and Qt3 terraces were generated under the cold-climate conditions of MIS 8 and MIS 6, respectively. These are the oldest dated slope deposits connected with fluvial terraces documented in the Mediterranean region, their preservation and recognition thus being of considerable significance. Chronological correlation of the glacial–interglacial cycles of the Pyrenees with the marine isotope stages conforms to the interpretation of paleo-environmental data and sedimentary controls of terrace genesis in extraglacial fluvial basins under temperate- to cold-climatic conditions

An aminostratigraphy for the British Quaternary based on Bithynia opercula

Aminostratigraphies of Quaternary non-marine deposits in Europe have been previously based on the racemization of a single amino acid in aragonitic shells from land and freshwater molluscs. The value of analysing multiple amino acids from the opercula of the freshwater gastropod Bithynia, which are composed of calcite, has been demonstrated. The protocol used for the isolation of intra-crystalline proteins from shells has been applied to these calcitic opercula, which have been shown to more closely approximate a closed system for indigenous protein residues. Original amino acids are even preserved in bithyniid opercula from the Eocene, showing persistence of indigenous organics for over 30 million years. Geochronological data from opercula are superior to those from shells in two respects: first, in showing less natural variability, and second, in the far better preservation of the intra-crystalline proteins, possibly resulting from the greater stability of calcite. These features allow greater temporal resolution and an extension of the dating range beyond the early Middle Pleistocene. Here we provide full details of the analyses for 480 samples from 100 horizons (75 sites), ranging from Late Pliocene to modern. These show that the dating technique is applicable to the entire Quaternary. Data are provided from all the stratotypes from British stages to have yielded opercula, which are shown to be clearly separable using this revised method. Further checks on the data are provided by reference to other type-sites for different stages (including some not formally defined). Additional tests are provided by sites with independent geochronology, or which can be associated with a terrace stratigraphy or biostratigraphy. This new aminostratigraphy for the non-marine Quaternary deposits of southern Britain provides a framework for understanding the regional geological and archaeological record. Comparison with reference to sites yielding independent geochronology, in combination with other lines of evidence, allows tentative correlation with the marine oxygen isotope record

David Quentin Bowen: A memorial

The Quaternary community lost a giant and a leader on October 5, 2020, when David Quentin Bowen, known to many as “DQ” and founding editor of Quaternary Science Reviews, passed away in Cardiff. Born on February 14, 1938 in Llanelli, SouthWales, he received his PhD at University College London. David’s 50 years of contributions to our science cannot be adequately summarized in a brief memorial but past, present, and future generations of Quaternary scientists will long remember his landmark achievements in publishing, his scientific contributions, and his personal and professional class in all his endeavors