A chronosequence method was used to study plant community changes over successional time in a replicated design over an interval of 56 years. Artificial earthworks (revetments) constructed in 1939 and 1968 within a military manufacturing facility have been maintained under a constant regime of regular cutting and biomass removal. Predictions of species and community level change based on models of Odum, Grime and Peet are tested. Aspect and time are shown to be the major explanatory factors determining vegetational differences between samples. Diversity was seen to be significantly lower in older communities in conflict with Odum's model of community development. Partitioning of community structure by relative abundance suggests that the direction of development is contingent on physical conditions. Change in species types from ruderal to stress tolerators is consistent with Grime's successional model but is supported only weakly and by a minority of the species present. Feet's model of competitive sorting is strongly supported at the l-3m scale but refuted at larger scales. It is apparent that older communities show a tendency towards divergence in structure. The influence of spatial factors on ecological research methods is examined and discussed and it is suggested that development of predictive community models will require a recognition of the multiple levels of community structure and the multiple scales of interactions between their components.

No description available.

<p>The research work addresses the changes that occurred in the valley and the Yungas of Cochabamba during the Inka Horizon (1400-1538 AC) while introducing in an exploratory way, the Late Intermediate (1100-1400 AC) and the Middle Horizon (400-1100 AC) periods. In theoretical terms, we emphasize the local human agency (individual and social) as important elements in order to understand the processes of social change. We assume that the complex relational webs generated by the Inka presence in the valleys and the Yungas appear as "traces" in the space (as constructed landscapes: social, agro-hydrological, sacral, administrative, war landscapes etc.) that can be seized from two sources, archaeological and historical, that are seen as complementing each other. </p><p>We carried out two case studies in the Yungas of Tablas Monte and Inkachaca /Paracti. In both areas, previously unknown to Bolivian archaeology, we examined the impact of the Inka. Based upon material evidence, such as the sophisticated agro-hydrological system sustained by an intensive use of the stone as well as documentary data, we discuss the presence of warrior groups, i.e. that the arrival of the Inka had a relative impact in this area.</p>

Traditionally, the Onavas Valley located in the middle Ri­o Yaqui, has been identified as part of the Rio Sonora archaeological tradition. However, no archaeological research has taken place in this region to verify this cultural model. This work presents new data from the Onavas Valley Archaeological Project (OVAP), conducted in the summer of 2003 and 2004, which provide basic data to solidify our understanding of an archaeologically poorly researched area, examine its role in interactions with the neighboring archaeological areas, and contrast the Ri­o Sonora tradition model. The methodology used combine archaeological survey, artifact analysis, and ethnohistorical research. A full-coverage systematic pedestrian survey, at the center of the Onavas Valley, was conducted covering an area of 67 km² and recorded 122 new sites. Three research approaches where set to discern and define the archaeological tradition within the Onavas Valley and then examine extra-regional interactions with neighboring archaeological areas. Those are 1) building a local chronology and a diagnostic inventory of material culture; 2) establishing the landscape structure (settlement pattern and ritual landscape) of the area; and 3) collecting and analyzing evidence for the manufacture, use, and exchange of trade goods. At the end of the material analysis, the OVAP conclude that the Onavas Valley had more cultural relation with the Huatabampo archaeological tradition than to the Rio Sonora archaeological tradition. Finally a comparison of the cultural landscape of the Onavas Valley with those of the Marana, Cerro de Trincheras, and Paquime traditions was made, to see different cultural developments in similar geographical condition using same methodological and analytical framework.

Over the last two decades the potential for the combined study of literature and archaeology has been increasingly recognised. The Victorian era, which gave rise to new literary forms, and to archaeology as a science, offers a fertile area of enquiry. This thesis seeks to bring together the imaginative possibilities of archaeology and literature, conceiving their close association to be rooted in the observance and appreciation of the natural world. Focusing on the work of Thomas Hardy and Richard Jefferies, who both wrote about Wessex landscapes rich in archaeology, the thesis identifies the processes involved in the authors’ engagement with nature in archaeological settings. In 1851, Sir Daniel Wilson welcomed archaeology into the ‘circle of the sciences’, and the subject rose to popularity in the periodical press alongside rural pursuits; driven by the closing divide between town and country. Literary depictions of nature in ancient settings elevated the imaginative conception of the past, and found a receptive audience in London papers such as the Graphic and the Pall Mall Gazette, to which Hardy and Jefferies contributed. Both authors associate the mysterious qualities of prehistoric times, and the consonant sense of ‘untrodden space’, with the discovery of new subterranean territories in the self. In a society that was ‘adrift on change’, and seeking new meaning, these connections between the literary and archaeological imagination, and between the present and the past, forged at least temporary consolation. Both authors anticipated early Modern approaches to an archaeology of mind.

No description available.

This thesis examines the physical legacy left by the unification of the Kingdom of England during the tenth century, and seeks to redress the way in which the Kingdom of Mercia is often overlooked or discounted in the traditional historical narrative. It principally examines the means by which Æthelflæd of Mercia extended political and military control over the West Midlands, both in terms of physical infrastructure and through ‘soft’ power in terms of economic control and material culture. It uses landscape archaeology, artefactual and textual evidence to compare Mercia with its ally, Wessex, and assess the different means by which Æthelflæd of Mercia and her brother Edward the Elder were able to consolidate and expand their territory, the physical infrastructure they established in order to defend it, and the ways in which these sites developed in response to the changing political, military and economic climates of the later tenth century. It will assess why some defensive sites developed into proto-urban settlements while others disappeared, and the extent to which this was a conscious or planned process. This thesis seeks to overturn the idea that burhs constructed in Mercia were insignificant or unplanned ‘emergency’ sites and instead were part of a sophisticated network of landscapes of defence, reflecting a significant level of manpower and logistical investment on the part of the Mercian state. It will furthermore seek to explore the ways in which the Mercian state supported such a network, how sites were chosen, constructed, maintained and garrisoned, and the impact these sites had both on the local population, in terms of patterns of settlement and material culture, and on the wider political scale.

The research work addresses the changes that occurred in the valley and the Yungas of Cochabamba during the Inka Horizon (1400-1538 AC) while introducing in an exploratory way, the Late Intermediate (1100-1400 AC) and the Middle Horizon (400-1100 AC) periods. In theoretical terms, we emphasize the local human agency (individual and social) as important elements in order to understand the processes of social change. We assume that the complex relational webs generated by the Inka presence in the valleys and the Yungas appear as "traces" in the space (as constructed landscapes: social, agro-hydrological, sacral, administrative, war landscapes etc.) that can be seized from two sources, archaeological and historical, that are seen as complementing each other. We carried out two case studies in the Yungas of Tablas Monte and Inkachaca /Paracti. In both areas, previously unknown to Bolivian archaeology, we examined the impact of the Inka. Based upon material evidence, such as the sophisticated agro-hydrological system sustained by an intensive use of the stone as well as documentary data, we discuss the presence of warrior groups, i.e. that the arrival of the Inka had a relative impact in this area.

Dendrochronology focuses on the relationship between a tree's growth and its environment and thus investigates interdisciplinary questions related to archaeology, climate, ecology, and global climate change. In this study, I examine the growth of two forms of bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva): strip-bark and whole-bark trees from two subalpine adjacent sites: Patriarch Grove and Sheep Mountain in the White Mountains of California. Classical tree-ring width analysis is utilized to test a hypothesis related to a proposed effect of the strip-bark formation on trees' utilization of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This effect has grown to be controversial because of the dual effect of temperature and carbon dioxide on trees' growth. The proposed effect is hypothesized to have accelerated growth since 1850 that produced wider rings, and the relation of the latter topic to anthropogenic activities and climate change. An interdisciplinary approach is taken by answering a question that relates temperature inferences and precipitation reconstructions from the chronologies developed in the study and other chronologies to Native Americans subsistence settlements and alpine villages in the White Mountains. Strip-bark trees do exhibit an enhanced growth that varies between sites. Strip-bark trees grow faster than whole-bark trees, however, accelerated growth is also evident in whole-bark trees but to a lesser degree. No evidence can be provided on the cause of the accelerated growth from the methods used. In the archaeological study, 88% of the calibrated radiocarbon dates from the alpine villages of the White Mountains cluster around above average precipitation, while no straightforward relationship can be established with temperature variations. These results confirm that water is the essence of life in the desert.

Free and open source geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial data are readily available to use in spatial-archaeological problem solving. Greater accessibility allows more frequent experimentation with archaeological GIS methodologies. The least cost path (LCP) analysis has been a frequently used method in archaeological GIS. Showing potential mobility patterns between archaeological sites or between sites and resources has been the LCP’s primary objective. The LCP’s major flaw is that is must be calculated between two designated points. A recent terrain analysis of southern Baffin Island has been unable to overcome this flaw, because of the size of the study area and the inability to assume any two points are directly related. Thus, a new GIS method using a ‘watershed’ function has been manipulated to incorporate the cost-surface element of the LCP into a mobility model by generating pathway networks instead of narrow A to B paths. The product is a multitude of potential pathways linking archaeologically dense coastal and interior areas. Portions of these pathways correlate with historic geographic descriptions of Inuit travel routes and with areas where chert toolstone is accessible. Generated with no material cost, this analysis has produced a predictive model to help in future research.