A detailed laboratory study of sandstone samples from outcrops and conventional core samples from the Maastrichtian-Paleocene Scollard-age fluvial strata in the Western Canada foredeep was undertaken to investigate the reservoir characteristics, burial depth history, and sandstone diagenesis. The sandstones are predominantly litharenites and sublitharenites, which accumulated in a variety of fluvial environments. The porosity of the sandstones is both syn-depositional and diagenetic in origin. The potential of a sandstone to serve as a reservoir for producible hydrocarbons is strongly related to the sandstones diagenetic history. Detailed study of the distribution of authigenic minerals of the Scollard sequence suggests that the diversities in the pattern distribution of authigenic clay minerals in the regions are not random but they coincide with the burial depth of these strata and has a well-defined relation to the sequence stratigraphic framework The general absence of dickite, coupled with limited conversion of smectite into illite in the Scollard sandstones, suggests crystallization at a depth less than 1.5 km. In contrast, the occurrence of blocky dickite, fibrous illite and chlorite in the Coalspur and Willow Creek sandstones, coupled with albitized feldspars and quartz cement, suggests that sandstones there underwent a maximum burial depth greater than 3 km. It has been observed that kaolin mineral content increases in sandstones lying below subaerial unconformities, which mark the most significant stratigraphic hiatuses and hence the sequence boundaries in fully fluvial successions. This study demonstrates the effects of burial depth and paleoclimate on pore-water chemistry, which in turn, influenced the mineralogy and the distributions of authigenic minerals in the sandstones. The 13C and 18O compositions of pedogenic carbonate nodules from the Willow Creek Formation associated with the red shale host sediments have been used as a paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental proxy. The isotopic composition of nodules suggests that these formed during drier conditions when C3 vegetation prevailed at the site. The predominance of smectite and illite in fines and the poor floral content point to a low seasonal rainfall in a semi-arid climatic environment.

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>Magister Scientiae - MSc / The burial history, thermal maturity and petroleum generation history of the F-O Gas Field, Bredasdorp Basin have been studied using 3D basin and petroleum systems modelling approach. The investigated sedimentary basin for this study evolved around mid-late Jurassic to early Cretaceous times when Southern Africa rifted from South America. The F-O field is located 40 km SE of the F-A platform which supplies gas and condensate to the PetroSA ‘Gas to Liquid’ plant located in Mossel Bay. As data integration is an integral part of the applied modelling concept, 2D seismic profile and well data (i.e. logs and reports from four drilled wells) were integrated into a 3D structural model of the basin. Four source rock intervals (three from the Early Cretaceous stages namely; Hauterivian, Barremian, Aptian and one from the Late Cretaceous Turonian stage) were incorporated into the 3D model for evaluating source rock maturation and petroleum generation potential of the F-O Gas Field. Additionally, measured present-day temperature, vitrinite reflectance, source potential data, basin burial and thermal history and timing of source rock maturation, petroleum generation and expulsion were forwardly simulated using a 3D basin modelling technique. At present-day, Turonian source rock is mainly in early oil (0.55-0.7% VRo) window, while the Aptian and Barremian source rocks are in the main oil (0.7-1.0% VRo) window, and the Hauterivian source rock is mainly in the main oil (0.7-1.0% VRo) to late oil (1.0-1.3% VRo) window. In the entire four source rock intervals the northern domain of the modelled area show low transformation, indicated by low maturity values that are attributable to less overburden thickness. Petroleum generation begins in later part of Early Cretaceous, corresponding to high heat flow and rapid subsidence/ sedimentation rates. The Barremian and Aptian source rocks are the main petroleum generators, and both shows very high expulsion efficiencies. The modelling results however indicate that the younger Aptian source rock could be regarded as the best source rock out of the four modelled source rocks in the F-O field due to its quantity (i.e. highest TOC of 3%), quality (Type II with HI values of 400) and highest remaining potential. At present-day, ~1209 Mtons of hydrocarbons were cumulatively generated and peak generation occurred at ~43 Ma with over 581 Mtons generated. Finally, the results of this study can directly be applied for play to prospect risk analysis of the F-O gas field.

The aim of this thesis is to establish a chronological framework for the grave-goods, and hence the graves, from all known Anglo-Saxon burial sites in the Upper Thames Region. Such a framework is considered essential to any reconstruction of early Saxon activity in the area and especially to any solution of the problems which surround the origin and early development of Wessex. It is based on a detailed typological study of material from 168 sites within a defined area. This area is bounded approximately on the west by the source of the Thames and the Cotswolds scarp, on the north by the Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire county boundary, on the east by the Thames/ Ouse watershed and the Chilterns scarp, and in the south by the Kennet Valley. The thesis is presented in three volumes, text (I), catalogue (II), and illustrations (III). The text is divided into three parts. Part I is introductory. The subject is set in the context of broader problems and previous hypotheses, and the value of the material to be analysed is assessed. The physical identity of the Upper Thames Region, the problems and methods of cataloguing sites, and the history of their discovery and recording are briefly discussed. Part II, in which the typology and chronology of the grave-goods are established, forms the core of the thesis. It consists of seventeen chapters and a summary chronological chart. The first chapter considers some general methodological problems and outlines the fundamental points of archaeological chronology for the period, on which that of the Upper Thames Region depends. Chapter 2 is a long analysis of brooches. The greatest attention is given to the manufacture and chronology of cast saucer brooches, but the dating of disc brooches is also set on a firmer basis, and there are important comments on all remaining forms (penannular, annular, button, great and small square-headed, small-long, and miscellaneous). Chapters 3 to 8 deal with the other objects found principally in women's graves (pins, finger rings and bracelets, necklaces, combs, toilet items, and bags, boxes, and girdlehung objects); they include discussion of the function of some of these items as well as their dating. Chapter 9 is about belt-equipment. The weapons found in men's graves are discussed in chapters 10 to 14 (swords, seaxes, shields, spears, and miscellaneous); in chapter 12 the first attempt at a typology of English shield bosses, based on computerised numerical taxonomy, is presented, while in chapter 13 Dr. M.J. Swanton's recently published typology of spearheads receives detailed criticism. Knives are briefly considered in chapter 15. Chapter 16, an analysis of the pottery, includes several modifications of Dr.J.N.L.Myres' work. This part concludes with chapter 17 on vessels of glass, metal, and wood. The chronologies thus established help to provide a date of burial for about one third of the catalogued graves and to indicate a date-range for the use of most sites. These data form the basis for deductions, made in Part III, about the history of the Saxon settlement in the Upper Thames Region. The background to this discussion is set out briefly in two sections, one on the nature of the Roman settlement in the Region, the other a critical survey of documentary evidence pertaining to the period. The synthesis deals in turn with the archaeology of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries, and its possible historical interpretation. It is argued that the initial settlement during the first quarter of the fifth century consisted of a group of Saxons hired as foederati, who were posted at and near Dorchester-on- Thames; in the second quarter of the century their leaders usurped authority from their erstwhile British employers and assumed control of a wide area, planting out groups of settlers, probably including many new immigrants, during the second half of the century throughout most of the Region. These settlements grew in size, number, and wealth; their prosperity is reflected in the emergence of well furnished graves, probably belonging to leading families, the most spectacular of which is the early seventhcentury 'princely' burial at Cuddesdon near Dorchester. During the fifth and sixth centuries the Upper Thames Region appears to have been most closely connected with the other Saxon settlement along and south of the Thames, but in the sixth century connections with the Midlands, especially the West Midlands, were established, and there is some evidence of direct contact with East Kent. In the seventh century the Upper Thames shares the uniform material culture associated with 'Final Phase 1 or 'Proto-Christian' cemeteries. Direct connections between this evidence and documentary history are few, though it is argued forcibly that there is no evidence that the battle a of Badon had any effect on the Saxon settlement of the Upper Thames Region. The archaeological evidence also suggests that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entries relating to the battles fought by Ceawlin and Cuthwulf should not be taken at face value. In a final section the documentary evidence for the history of Wessex is specifically examined in the light of the archaeological conclusions. It is suggested that during the second half of the sixth century one of the leading families of the Upper Thames Region asserted its power not only over an enlarged Upper Thames Region, but also over Hampshire and Wiltshire, thus founding the royal dynasty of Cerdic and Cymric and creating what became known as the kingdom of the West Saxons.

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This thesis is the result of a decision to extend the approach used by me when examining Irish burial practices, to a review of the archaeological and documentary record for burial practices and associated phenomena in the transitional period from late/post-Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England. The study considers burial rites; the method of disposal of physical remains, the position and orientation of bodies, and burial structures and enclosures: grave-goods are only referred to when they are pertinent to a particular line of argument. My intention is to draw together the various aspects of burial of the Iron Age, Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon periods in order to look at the overall picture. Occasionally this may mean stating the obvious, but by noting and plotting distributions of various burial traits first in the Iron Age and Romano-British periods, and then comparing these traits with the Anglo-Saxon period some revealing results can be obtained. It was important to begin with the Iron Age since some minority practices current in the early Anglo-Saxon period had a continuous history from the pre-Roman period. They are of importance in demonstrating the continuities that existed alongside major changes. [continued in text ...]