This thesis presents the results of paleoethnobotanical investigations conducted at nine karst sites associated with the Maya site of Pacbitun in western Belize. The archaeobotanical remains were deposited during the Late Classic period and the site was abandoned at some point during this same time (c. A.D. 900). Paleoenvironmental data from the Maya Lowlands indicates that human activity contributed to regional climate change during the Late/Terminal Classic period. However, site-specific research has demonstrated a variety of responses to these social and ecological changes. The archaeobotanical data from this study is used as a proxy for understanding how people at Pacbitun ritually responded to macro-regional environmental stress. Ritual plant use at the cave sites does not conform to behavioral ecology models that predict biological, cost-fitness related responses to resource scarcity. Instead, the data supports a model of behavior based on culturally motivated ritual practices.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2004. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 479-516). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

The aim of this thesis is to study and evaluate the application of hyperspectral image analysis as a non-destructive analysis method for historical mortars. This method was applied on 35 sampled mortars in varying sizes and type from the inner walls of the fortified medieval city Carcassonne. By using near infrared spectroscopy and classifying the complex multivariate data by applying the SIMCA method (Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogies) it is possible to conduct an in depth analysis of the samples. This can then further our understanding about the construction phases as well as construction techniques used as indicated through the chemometric analysis that can identify and group the mortars in accordance to raw material and transformation process. From this could four distinct groups be found in the PCA models, two Roman periods and two high medieval periods, allowing to study Carcassonne prior to and after its enclosure. A find from the first Roman period indicates on a bathhouse or public building existing prior to the construction of the defensive wall, leading to the hypothesis that maybe more parts of the inner wall might contain older structures like this. The application of hyperspectral image analysis on historical mortars has proven itself a useful tool and simple method for studying mortars. / Målet med denna uppsats var att studera och evaluera applikationen av hyperspektral bildanalys som en icke-destruktiv analysmetod på historiskt murbruk. Instrumentet applicerades på 35 murbruksprover i varierande storlek och typ tagna från de inre murarna av den befästa medeltida staden Carcassonne. Med nära infraröd spektroskopi och klassificering av den multivariata genom SIMCA metoden (Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogies) var det möjligt att göra en djupgående analys av proverna. Detta tillvägagångssätt kan då främja vår förståelse om stadens konstruktionsfaser och konstruktionstekniker som indikeras genom den chemometriska analysen som kan identifiera murbruket utefter råmaterial samt hur murbruket tillverkats. Från dessa metoder kunde fyra distinkta grupper finnas i PCA modellerna, två romerska perioder och två högmedeltida perioder, vilket öppnade för tolkning både innan och efter stadsmurarna rests. Ett fynd från den första romerska perioden indikerar på förekomsten av ett badhus eller publik byggnad vars väggar sedan återanvänts vid konstruktionen av den inre stadsmuren. Detta fynd leder till hypotesen att potentiellt andra delar av den inre stadsmuren kan innehålla väggar från äldre byggnader som denna. Applikationen av hyperspektral bildanalys på historiskt murbruk har påvisat sig ett användbart verktyg och simpel metod för att studera murbruk.

The increased human impact on the environment and climate after the retreat of the Last Glacial has strengthened its importance in the region of Västernorrland where Mesolithic sites are evident. This study focuses on a multiproxy analysis, where archaeological and natural science methods are combined to test several techniques in a peat sample. The origin of the peat sample is coming from the formation of a postglacial kettle hole situated near to Mesolithic sites. The aim of this thesis is twofold. Firstly, to estimate the value and the weakness of each method as also the combination of multiple results. Secondly, to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment including the detection of possible indications from past cultures. To begin with, the peat sample was collected from a kettle hole near Lillsjön lake, see (fig. 1) in 2010. The total depth of the peat sample was 80 cm and after its sampling, it was placed in a cold storage room until the spring of 2019, when analysis was conducted. Initially, a theoretical background will be presented as well as information for the area of study in the section of Scientific background. Moreover, a short theory is going to be given for the formation of the landscapes in cold environments as also the validity of beetle fossils with examples from previous case studies. After the theory part, all the methods are specified with results and appropriate diagrams and tables. After the analysis, the discussion will follow by combining all the methods and give potential theories for the reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment. The discussion part is divided into smaller chapters and after the conclusion an appendix is given with fossil photographs that were taken during the identification, see (fig.15,16,17).

In the central Andes, complex civilizational processes and dramatic biophysical phenomena have concurred for thousands of years. The confluence of these cultural and natural forces implies that environmental disturbances should be neither overemphasized nor ignored but adequately included as a variable in the modeling of the cultural processes of the Andean prehistory. In this sense, it is justified to clarify why and how people from pre-Hispanic urban centers preferred to accept risk associated with disaster-prone settings and how they eventually developed social responses to biophysical hazards through centuries.Framed within this purpose, this dissertation takes as a case study the prehistoric urban center of Cajamarquilla (138 ha) located in a flood-prone sector on the arid Peruvian central coast, and occupied mainly but intermittently for a period of almost 800 years between ca. AD 650 and 1400 (from the Middle Horizon to the Late Intermediate Period). My research was built on the basis of theoretical and methodological contributions of the Historical Ecology, Anthropology of Disasters, and Environmental Archaeology. Thus, it included conventional archeological procedures, a geomorphological characterization of the study area, and archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological methods and techniques. Although a range of contexts were analyzed, the study of the hydraulic (first-order irrigation canals) and storage (underground silos) systems associated with the site were strongly emphasized. Results indicate that the interspersed occurrence of droughts and floods with phases of dynamic constructive activity in Cajamarquilla express a form of risk normalization. This included the maximum use of clay soils and the involvement of the site residents with planned abandonment processes, although apparently sudden final abandonment has also been documented. While it has been verified that occupational dynamics in Cajamarquilla were constantly constrained by regional eco-climatic conditions, these always responded simultaneously to the socio-political controls of each era, so that social responses were not only multifactorial in their origins but also multipurpose in their ends, an illustration of this being the thousands of bottle-shaped, capacious silos that characterize the site. This makes sense with the integrative culture-nature worldviews of the indigenous Andean societies. Finally, this investigation also finds that, beyond the common socio-environmental connotation noted above, social action in Cajamarquilla also shows substantial differences between its different cultural occupations when dealing with environmental determinants: Its earliest inhabitants carefully planned an ambitious technological equipment (canals and silos), while its later inhabitants were characterized by their marked sense of opportunism and pragmatism both in the use/readjustment of such inherited technologies and the rules of community life within the settlement. In general, beyond usual binary frames that oppose determinism versus possibilism, or collapse versus resilience, the case of Cajamarquilla raises the anthropological need for an integrative approach focused on how and to what extent cultural and natural forces intermingle in urban life.

This research project used many disciplines to examine the impacts of industrialisation on the wooded landscape of the South Pennines. The woodlands of this upland region are characterised by their small size and steep topography. Nevertheless, they exhibit a rich archaeology of management from the medieval period onwards. Field survey of case study sites was combined with charcoal analysis from excavated burning platforms, palynology of soil cores, tree ring analysis and ecological survey. This was set within a historical context, particularly focusing on the regional industries of iron, leather and textiles, in order to understand the economic motivations for changes in woodland management. The woodlands examined showed a diverse range of histories. Some had a strong correlation with models of changing woodland management culture of neighbouring regions, particularly the evolution of systematic oak-dominated coppice in response to industrial demands. Woodland management in the South Pennines was more sensitive to industries which created dispersed demand from many actors than to bulk demand from centralised industries and responded to the changing economics of the fossil fuel era. The dominance of freehold tenure also contributed to many woodlands being managed in an unsystematic manner and the survival of private wood pasture alongside timber harvesting. / Arts and Humanities Research Council through the Heritage Consortium

På senare år har miljöarkeologi genomgått en signifikant utveckling, men det är inte helt tydligt på vilket sätt den kommersiella sidan av arkeologi har följt med i utvecklingen. Det huvudsakliga målet med denna studie är att utforska hur miljöarkeologin tillämpas inom den svenska uppdragsarkeologin. Studien utvärderar krav och föreskrifter gällande miljöarkeologi inom uppdragsarkeologi genom att studera lagar, och relevanta texter författade av Riksantikvarieämbetet och Länsstyrelserna. Studien utforskar också hur ofta miljöarkeologi appliceras inom det uppdragsarkeologiska arbetet genom att studera ett urval arkeologiska undersökningar där de enskilda Länsstyrelsernas krav och utredarnas (arkeologernas) val av miljöarkeologiska analysmetoder sammanställs och jämförs. Fortsättningsvis utforskar studien vilka uppdragsarkeologiska undersökningar som använder vilken typ av miljöarkeologiska analysmetoder genom att studera rapporter från Västerbottens län publicerade mellan åren 2010 och 2024. Resultaten visar på att miljöarkeologi är ett krav från Länsstyrelserna när det är ansett att vara en del av god vetenskaplig kvalité. Kraven på miljöarkeologi skiljer sig åt mellan de olika länen. De miljöarkeologiska analysmetoder som används inom uppdragsarkeologi, både i jämförelsen mellan olika län samt i sammanställningen av olika uppdragsarkeologiska undersökningar inom Västerbotten, visar på ett begränsat urval av möjliga metoder. Val av miljöarkeologiska analysmetoder har dock blivit mer varierat, samt tillämpats oftare, på senare år. De underliggande orsakerna till resultaten beror sannolikt på större systematiska problem inom den uppdragsarkeologiska sektorn.

<p>This thesis documents the development and application of a unique database orientated software package, BugsCEP, for environmental and climatic reconstruction from fossil beetle (Coleoptera) assemblages. The software tools are described, and the incorporated statistical methods discussed and evaluated with respect to both published modern and fossil data, as well as the author’s own investigations.</p><p>BugsCEP consists of a reference database of ecology and distribution data for over 5 800 taxa, and includes temperature tolerance data for 436 species. It also contains abundance and summary data for almost 700 sites - the majority of the known Quaternary fossil coleopteran record of Europe. Sample based dating evidence is stored for a large number of these sites, and the data are supported by a bibliography of over 3 300 sources. Through the use of built in statistical methods, employing a specially developed habitat classification system (Bugs EcoCodes), semi-quantitative environmental reconstructions can be undertaken, and output graphically, to aid in the interpretation of sites. A number of built in searching and reporting functions also increase the efficiency with which analyses can be undertaken, including the facility to list the fossil record of species found by searching the ecology and distribution data. The existing Mutual Climatic Range (MCR) climate reconstruction method is implemented and improved upon in BugsCEP, as BugsMCR, which includes predictive modelling and the output of graphs and climate space maps.</p><p>The evaluation of the software demonstrates good performance when compared to existing interpretations. The standardization method employed in habitat reconstructions, designed to enable the inter-comparison of samples and sites without the interference of differing numbers of species and individuals, also appears to be robust and effective. Quantitative climate reconstructions can be easily undertaken from within the software, as well as an amount of predictive modelling. The use of jackknifing variants as an aid to the interpretation of climate reconstructions is discussed, and suggested as a potential indicator of reliability. The combination of the BugStats statistical system with an enhanced MCR facility could be extremely useful in increasing our understanding of not only past environmental and climate change, but also the biogeography and ecology of insect populations in general.</p><p>BugsCEP is the only available software package integrating modern and fossil coleopteran data, and the included reconstruction and analysis tools provide a powerful resource for research and teaching in palaeo-environmental science. The use of modern reference data also makes the package potentially useful in the study of present day insect faunas, and the effects of climate and environmental change on their distributions. The reconstruction methods could thus be inverted, and used as predictive tools in the study of biodiversity and the implications of sustainable development policies on present day habitats.</p><p>BugsCEP can be downloaded from http://www.bugscep.com</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 689-733). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

This thesis deals with questions on various applications using soils and sediments as sources of information in archaeological research. Human environmental impact on soils and sediments, in terms of pollution, is a well known phenomenon as the industrialisation intensified during historical times and onwards and has left strong pollutive marks. However, humans have always accumulated or emitted matter and various compounds in connection to their habitats for subsistence, but these earlier traces are not always detectable, depending on soil and sediment state of preservation. Bioessential elements are intimately linked to humans and their dwellings and especially phosphate has been evident in this respect. It was established already in the 1930s, that even Stone Age settlements could be located through elevated phosphate content in extensive soil phosphate mappings. This thesis is a compilation on results from several sites and excavations from the southern to the northern parts of Sweden. There is a wide variety of soil types and chronological setting in the material, from highly acid podzols to calcareous soils, and sediments dated to Younger Dryas to current top soils. Sites from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Early and Late Iron Age and Medieval are all represented. Methods that have been implemented are firstly various forms of analysis in regards to soil phosphate, magnetic susceptibility and organic matter. Furthermore, metal and non-metal elements have been considered, as well as lead isotopes. A multiproxy approach is applied in some examples where biological and chemical data is combined to interpret past events. In this thesis there are also five papers presented. The first paper deals with methodological issues concerning multi-element analyses of various soil samples (off-site to feature) from an archaeological excavation. The second paper is about the possibilities that may be used when analysing the soil organic phosphate in relation to prehistoric agriculture. Paper three and fourth are compilations of large scale contract archaeological project. These papers deal with theoretical, methodological and practical issues concerning environmental archaeology in relation to contract archaeology. Studies on landscape development and erosion are among the cases presented. The last paper deals with a late Mesolithic - early Neolithic settlement in Vuollerim, N. Sweden, and spatial dimensions on the human use of settlement (off-site to on-site) and house floors (intra-site), are discussed.