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We use sedimentary structures, fossil evidence, sediment petrophysical properties, and geochemistry to investigate past climate. In the first two chapters, we outline a toolkit to identify the presence of ice rafted debris in lake sediments using a combination of grain size analysis, computed tomography and image analysis. We apply this toolkit to sediments from the early Mesozoic, paleo-Arctic Junggar Basin, and describe the first evidence of continental freezing from this time period. We also discuss characteristics of algae rafted debris; clusters of coarse sediment suspended in a fine sediment matrix can be deposited without freezing conditions and may be a confounding factor in the geological record. In chapters three and four, we examine sediment cores from the coast of New York and the effects of sea level rise after the last deglaciation. New AMS radiocarbon dates from submerged terrestrial sediments on the US Atlantic continental shelf provide key constraints on the timing of marine transgression following the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. We use sediment elevation tables (SETs) and sediment cores to measure the accretion rate in a Hudson River tidal wetland to determine its vulnerability to sea level rise. We find that SETs overestimate accretion and underestimate vulnerability on timescales relevant to coastal flooding risk. Together, these chapters outline novel tools and approaches in imaging, geochemistry, and micro-stratigraphy broadly applicable for investigations on paleoclimate research through time and space.

No / Multiproxy palaeohydrological records from three raised bogs in Northern Ireland indicate that a major shift to wetter/cooler climatic conditions postdated the rapid decrease in solar activity at 2800 cal. BP by ~100 years. This event is bracketed by two wiggle-match radiocarbon-dated cryptotephra layers in each profile, enabling a high degree of chronological precision. These replicated data corroborate previous findings based on Irish peat humification profiles, and may indicate spatial complexity in the climatic response to solar activity between oceanic and continental areas.

Yes / Shamanic belief systems represent the first form of religious practice visible within the global archaeological record. Here we report on the earliest known evidence of shamanic costume: modified red deer crania headdresses from the Early Holocene site of Star Carr (c. 11 kya). More than 90% of the examples from prehistoric Europe come from this one site, establishing it as a place of outstanding shamanistic/cosmological significance. Our work, involving a programme of experimental replication, analysis of macroscopic traces, organic residue analysis and 3D image acquisition, metrology and visualisation, represents the first attempt to understand the manufacturing processes used to create these artefacts. The results produced were unexpected—rather than being carefully crafted objects, elements of their production can only be described as expedient. / AHRC

Yes / Icelandic settlement (Landnám) period farmsteads offer opportunities to explore the nature and timing of anthropogenic activities and environmental impacts of the first Holocene farming communities. We employ Bayesian statistical modelling of archaeological, paleoenvironmental and documentary datasets to present a framework for improving chronological robustness of archaeological events. Specifically, we discuss events relevant to the farm Hrísbrú, an initial and complex settlement site in southwest Iceland. We demonstrate that tephra layers are key in constraining reliable chronologies, especially when combined with related datasets and treated in a Bayesian framework. The work presented here confirms earlier interpretations of the chronology of the site while providing increased confidence in the robustness of the chronology. Most importantly, integrated modelling of AMS radiocarbon dates on Hordeum vulgare grains, palynological data, documented evidence from textual records and typologically diagnostic artefacts yield increased dating reliability. The analysis has also shown that AMS radiocarbon dates on bone collagen need further scrutiny. Specifically for the Hrísbrú farm, first anthropogenic footprint palynomorph taxa are estimated to around AD 830–881 (at 95.4% confidence level), most likely before the tephra fall out of AD 877 ± 1 (the Landnám tephra layer), demonstrating the use of arable fields before the first known structures were built at Hrísbrú (AD 874–951) and prior to the conventionally accepted date of the settlement of Iceland. Finally, we highlight the importance of considering multidisciplinary factors for other archaeological and paleoecological studies of early farming communities of previously uninhabited island areas.

Schwarzerden und deren Kolluvien in der Uckermark als Forschungsobjekt werden als Archive zur Aufklärung der holozänen Landschaftsgeschichte und speziell der Bodengenese genutzt. Mit Hilfe eines speziellen interdisziplinären Methodenansatzes wurden Bodencatenen untersucht und im Hinblick auf ihren paläoökologischen Informationsgehalt interpretiert. Ergebnis sind differenzierte Aussagen zu Zuständen der holozänen Landschaftsentwicklung der Region Uckermark im Hinblick auf anthropogenen Einfluß, hydrologische Verhältnisse, Morphodynamik und Bodengenese sowie deren Ursachen- und Wirkungszusammenhänge. Voraussetzung für die Tschernosemgenese im Boreal und z.T. Atlantikum unter Laubmischwald sind die regionalen natürlichen Besonderheiten - der hohe Kalkgehalt des Substrates und die Klimaverhältnisse mit geringen Jahresniederschlägen. Seit dem Neolithikum bis zum Beginn des Mittelalters ist die Uckermark durch ein Vegetationsmosaik charakterisiert, das durch Offenlandbereiche innerhalb von Misch- und Laubmischwäldern gekennzeichnet ist und durch die ur- und frühgeschichtliche Siedlungsdynamik bestimmt wird. Der Landschaftswasserhaushalt in hydrologisch voneinander relativ unabhängigen Kleinsteinzugsgebieten des Jungmoränengebietes wird mit Beginn des Neolithikums sowohl durch die Siedlungsdynamik als auch den globalen Klimawandel beeinflußt und ist durch einen Wechsel von Trocken- und Feuchtphasen gekennzeichnet. Die Schwarzerdegenese und ihr Erhalt ist Ergebnis des Wandels paläoökologischer Zustände der holozänen Landschaftsgeschichte, die durch unterschiedlichen Verhältnisse der pedogenetischen Prozesse Tschernosemierung und Lessivierung auf der Grundlage des unterschiedlichen Zusammenwirkens der natürlichen und anthropogenen Faktoren bestimmt werden. / Phaeozems and their colluvia in the Uckermark were used as archives for the reconstruction of the holocene landscape history and particularly the pedogenesis. Soil catenas were examined and their palaeoecological information interpreted with the help of a special interdisciplinary combination of methods. Results are differentiated conclusions to stages of the holocene landscape development of the region Uckermark regarding anthropogenic influence, hydrologic conditions, morphodynamics and pedogenesis as well as the relations between them. The genesis of chernozems in the Boreal and partly the Atlantic period under leaves mixed woodland was caused by the special regional environmental conditions - the high content of carbonates in the substrate and the climate conditions with low yearly precipitation. Since the neolithic period up to the beginning of the Middle Ages the Uckermark is characterized by a vegetation mosaic consisting of leaves mixed woodlands and open land areas. The vegetation mosaic is determined by pre- and earlyhistorical settlement dynamics. With the beginning of the neolithic period the landscape water regime in mostly hydrologically independent small catchment areas in the young morain area is influenced by both, the settlement dynamics and the global climatic change. The water regime is characterized by an alternation of dry and humid phases. The genesis of chernozems and its conservation in form of phaeozems is the result of the change of palaeoecological stages of the holocene landscape history. The different conditions of palaeoenvironment, caused by various kinds of interaction between the natural and anthropogenic factors, determined the differences of the relation between the pedogenetic processes, the genesis of chernozems and their lessivation.