The Effects of Holocene Landscape Changes on the Formation of the Archaeological Record in the Fayum Basin, Egypt

Geoarchaeological research was performed across an archaeological landscape along the hyperarid northern paleoshores of the modern Lake Qarun, Fayum Basin, Egypt. Objectives were to record sedimentary variability and to consider the correlation between the paleoenvironmental interpretations of these sedimentary data and the observed archaeological record dated to the early and mid-Holocene. Our approach combines hand-drilling and stratigraphic descriptions with detailed studies of sediments (grain size analysis, analyses of CaC

Testing predictions for symmetry, variability and chronology of backed artefact production in Australia\u27s Western Desert

The Backed Artefact Symmetry Index (BASI) provides a measure with which to describe geometric variation in Australian backed artefacts, and Peter Hiscock has suggested that desert versions of this artefact type will be more symmetrical than their coastal counterparts. The re-excavated Serpent\u27s Glen (Karnatukul) site and nearby site of Wirrili have produced a large assemblage of backed artefacts. These Western Desert assemblages allow for the testing of BASI. The backed artefacts demonstrate significantly more variability than predicted, demonstrating that all technological debates benefit from larger well-dated assemblages. The signalling information observed in these sites\u27 pigment art repertoires, combined with this versatility in the toolkits, increases our understanding of the complexity of middle and late Holocene highly mobile foragers in the Australian arid zone