The purpose of this study is to investigate the geological and morphological features around ancient city of Zeugma. To achieve this, a geological map of Zeugma excavation site is prepared / an aerial photographic survey and morphological analyses are conducted on a broader area. Additionally, the biggest ancient quarry in the study area is investigated. In the close vicinity of Zeugma, four lithologies which are, from bottom to top, clayey limestone, thick bedded limestone, chalky limestone and cherty limestone are identified. A major fault with a vertical throw of 80 m is mapped in the area. Geological survey reveals that the excavation site is located within the chalky limestone and the rock tombs are carved within the thick bedded limestone. In the aerial photographic survey, Firat River is classified into 4 morphological classes which are river, island, flood plain and basement. The change among these classes is investigated between 1953 and 1992. The results reveal that there is no considerable variation in the position of the river channel and margins of flood plain within 39 years. The major change is observed in the islands that are built within the flood plain. Testing the elevation of Gaziantep and Firat formations boundary using the relief map, investigating the visibility of selected points in the area, predicting the source area for the water supply, and evaluating the nature of the ancient route, constitute the morphological analysis carried out in this study. However, these analyses are not studied in detail and should be considered as the first attempts for more detailed morphological analyses.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of geology on ancient K&uuml / ltepe settlement located in a tectonically active area, namely Sarimsakli basin, shaped by Central Anatolian Fault Zone. Four main data sources used in this study are geological map, digital elevation model (DEM), slip plane and the borehole data. Geological maps are used for the determination of key horizons and the faults shaping the basin. Slip data measured in the field are used to identify the nature of the faults. Borehole data are used for the preparation of Quaternary thickness map and the borehole-to-borehole sections across the basin. Morphology of the area is investigated using the DEM with a particular emphasis on the drainage characteristics of the basin. The analyses have shown that the faults shaping the basin are still active suggesting vertical movements today as well as during the historical period. According to morphological analysis, the basin is drained by a single channel (Karasu river) which is controlled by the western segment of the fault zone. If the fault activates, the channel is elevated resulting in the formation of a lake behind the channel. Accordingly, the present morphological configuration suggests that a water level elevated for 70 m will totally bury K&uuml / ltepe.

This research examines the relationship between the ways in which urban families engaged local landscapes and the development of shared identities at the prehispanic Maya city of Actuncan, Belize. Such shared identities would have created deep historical ties to specific urbanized spaces, which enabled and constrained political expansion during the Terminal Classic period (ca. A.D. 800–900), a time when the city experienced rapid population growth as surrounding centers declined. This research contributes to the understanding of urban processes of growth and decay in this region, and how they are linked to the behaviors of social factions in settlements. For communities, group identity can provide a sense of connection to place that integrates people at various social levels, provide an individual with social memories and meanings that can be applied to understanding and interpreting material life, and foster a common sense of self and awareness. Daily activities and their engagement with the material world entangle social meanings, values, and relationships. Further, spaces in which people reside and perform these tasks often affect the meanings and values associated with the activities themselves. The combination of shared practices and the spaces in which they occur is ultimately what helps to create and maintain group identity. To investigate household relationships, this research considers the nature and location of activity patterns in and around three commoner houses to infer shared practices and the shared identities that those activities both enabled and constrained. Importantly, this research investigates not only the architectural areas that each house comprises, but also the open areas surrounding them. The goal of this research is to determine similarities and differences in the use of space throughout the sample area. Were open spaces used in similar ways to residential groups? Did Terminal Classic residents of the Northern Settlement conduct similar activities in all of the residential groups? Alternatively, were these groups locations for different types of practices? To explore activity patterns, multiple methods were employed, including subsurface testing, soil chemical residue analysis, and macro– and microartifact analysis, to produce overlapping datasets of the sample area. Systematic testing using postholes was used to understand open spaces between architecture in addition to the architectural space itself. Through posthole sampling, macroartifacts, microartifacts, and soil samples were obtained for further examination. The aim of artifact analysis was to examine artifact diversity and density within the residential groups as well as between them to aid in the identification of activity loci. Additionally, soil chemical residue analysis was employed to investigate activities. Similarities and differences between artifact and chemical patterning can provide insight into shared practices. By creating multiple lines of evidence from independent datasets, inferences about activities can be more strongly supported. The artifact and chemical data were examined spatially using geostatistics as well as with quantitative assessment. The results suggest that Terminal Classic residents of Actuncan were extensively utilizing not only the formal patio spaces of residential groups but also the interstitial spaces in between. Additionally, it is argued that one group appears to have been a locus for affiliative ritual practices in connection with ancestor veneration.

This dissertation project focuses on three study areas in the middle Tanana Valley (mTV) to provide records of local terrestrial ecological contexts and environmental changes in lowland settings that dated to the Late Glacial and early Holocene (16,000 to 6,000 cal. years ago) in interior Alaska and Eastern Beringia. The archaeological record of the mTV provides a rich history of hunter-gatherer land use dating over 14,000 years old. This project is part of two larger projects focused on prehistoric human ecology and foraging behavior in Eastern Beringia: the Quartz Lake-Shaw Creek Flats Multidisciplinary and Upward Sun River Site Projects. The study areas are spread out across a 4,000 km2 area in the mTV and contain the presence of archaeological sites that have records of well-developed stratification of sediments and soils and preserved macrofossils. Two of the study areas are dune fields: the Little Delta Dunes (including the Upward Sun River Site) and Rosa-Keystone Dunes Fields; the third area is Quartz Lake, one of the largest lakes within the region. As a whole they provide important information to understand the evolution of regional landscapes, paleoecological systems, and paleoenvironmental conditions dating back to 25,000 years ago, over 10,000 years prior to the currently accepted earliest human occupation of the region. Late Glacial and early Holocene landscapes of the mTV were ones of moderate stability and landscape disturbance with high rates of loess and aeolian sand deposition, and the presence of early-to-middle successional vegetation communities (herbs and forbs, shrubs, and deciduous trees) that fostered the presence of diverse mammalian faunal communities that no longer coexist in the region. As the middle Holocene approached, landscapes became increasingly stable with the expansion of the boreal forest and aeolian deposition drastically decreased throughout the mTV. The disturbances that fostered the highly productive early-to-middle successional vegetative communities in the Late Glacial and early Holocene became progressively partitioned in the middle Holocene and primarily relegated to active floodplains. These local ecological contexts can be used to assess changes in Late Glacial and Holocene faunal diversity and in human ecology and foraging behavior in interior Alaska and Eastern Beringia.

Isolating the climatic mechanisms driving Holocene geomorphic change and deciphering the role of landscape change in prehistoric cultural processes both require well-dated and relatively continuous alluvial chronologies. This study presents a centennial-scale, latest Pleistocene and Holocene chronology based on alluvial fan, floodplain, groundwater-discharge, and volcanic deposits for the Carrizo Wash watershed, a Little Colorado River headwater drainage on the southeastern Colorado Plateau. More than 200 radiocarbon dates provide chronometric control. The age of Zuni Salt Lake volcanic eruptions was re-evaluated using radiocarbon and luminescence dating. Two eruptive phases ~13.3 ka and ~11.8 ka suggest closely spaced, monogenetic events. These terminal Pleistocene ages for the eruptions are significantly younger and substantially more precise than previous argon method ages. Sediment exposed in modern arroyos is dominated by middle Holocene (~7.1–4.9 ka) alluvium in valley contexts, whereas piedmont alluvium dates primarily to the late Holocene (~4.3–2.7 ka). Extensive prehistoric channel entrenchment occurred ~4.9 and 0.8 ka. Localized incision occurred ~1.9 and 1.2 ka, and possibly ~7.5 and 2.7 ka. Extended drought typically preceded arroyo cutting, and entrenchment was associated with increased climate variability, major shifts in precipitation amount or seasonality, and reduced flooding. Accelerated valley and piedmont aggradation appears related to increased flooding and runoff associated with reduced vegetation cover during periods of low effective moisture resulting from enhanced North American Monsoon circulation and weak ENSO conditions. Conversely, slow or stalled deposition appears connected to reduced flooding and runoff fostered by denser vegetation during times of increased effective moisture caused by enhanced El Niños and increased winter precipitation. Ground-water discharge deposits at Cienega Amarilla indicate that spring discharge was greatest and water tables most elevated ~2.3–1.6 ka. Spring discharge appears to reflect variations in El Niño frequency and intensity and the resultant variations in winter precipitation. Study results suggest that predicted increased drought and enhanced or delayed monsoons associated with modern climate change could initiate accelerated erosion of upland areas and increased flooding in southern Colorado Plateau headwater tributaries. Archaeological implications include temporal biases associated with surface site distributions and changing viability of floodwater and water-table farming over time.

No description available.

Despite being a country synonymous with fishing and having very strong maritime traditions, the clear origins and development of specialist fishing communities prior to the mechanisation era in Iceland, particularly the Vestfirðir region, remain unclear. Further to this, the details of their chronological development are often erratic if not unknown. Historical records often recollect periods of success or failure, largely driven by economic narrative, however, the context, factors and responses to these changes have never been fully explored. Compounding this absence of information is the tendency for narratives to be accounting for Iceland as a whole, without giving allowance to any regional differences. By adopting an interdisciplinary methodology, underpinned by the application of geoarchaeology (the interpretation of the cultural record contained within soils and sediments), the chronological developments and historical narrative can begin to be established. The result of this research is a clearer understanding of the environmental history of fishing communities in the Vestfirðir region spanning over eight centuries, displaying evidence of a resilient and responsive society. As a result of this research, a clear distinction can now be made between sites which served maritime and terrestrial purposes based on the interpretation of the cultural material. The findings have produced a narrative detailing how a society has responded to wider environmental and social pressures driven by changes within Iceland and throughout Europe. The sites surveyed display unique variance in their characteristics of adaptation, reflecting a society which maintained a high degree of resilience and flexibility which essentially provides the foundation for one of the most successful fishing grounds in the world today.

This study comprises analysis of geological, geomorphological constraints that played role in the site selection of caravanserais. In order to do this, 15 caravanserais located along a route from NevSehir-Aksaray-Konya to BeySehir were used. The data used in the study include a caravanserai database, lithological maps, and digital elevation model of the area. GIS analyses performed in the study are proximity, visibility, and probability distribution (PDA). The first step is the generation of the ancient trade route which is used as a reference in other analysis. Results of the analysis indicate that the average distance between consequent caravanserais is 10 km. PDA suggests that there should be two more caravanserais between BeySehir - Yunuslar and one caravanserai between Obruk - Sulatnahani hans. Caravanserais are very close to a water source but not at their immediate vicinity. Groundwater is not considered in this study / dominant water sources are streams, springs and lakes. Their visibility tested in an area of 78 km2 shows a great variation suggesting that visibility is not considered during the site selection. Ignimbrite, limestone and marble are preferred rocks types although other rocks such as clastic rocks are exposed in closer distances.

Archaeologists working in the Eastern Mediterranean do not fully understand the relationship between the earliest known farming communities of the Early Neolithic and the earliest known proto-urban communities of the Late Neolithic, despite more than a century of intensive study. The ongoing excavations at Beisamoun Pond 11, in the Hula Valley of northern Israel (ca. late 8th – early 7th millennia BCE), provide a rare opportunity to better understand this transition. For this study, micromorphological analyses were performed on the earthen construction materials and the surrounding sediments from a large, multiphase structure and several partially preserved architectural features. These analyses were performed alongside excavation in order to clarify the stratigraphic relationships, site formation processes, and degree of preservation of context at the site. Five main conclusions are drawn. First, the earliest exposed layers were built on a sloping, irregularly surfaced wetland soil. Second, construction material at the Pond 11 area was composed of local silty clay loam mixed with ashes, dung, and plant temper. Third, construction material and archaeological accumulation degraded during a period of semi-abandonment, ca. 6700 – 6600 BCE, and the degradation products (e.g., adobe, ash, coprolites, and charcoal) are spread over 175 m. Fourth, several walls of the early Pond 11 structure survived for centuries and were reused during later periods of rebuilding. Finally, bioturbation and pooling water have greatly disturbed the upper layers; the earlier layers are better preserved. The micromorphological results lead to a discussion of community continuity and social memory during this period. The extent of the deposits indicates a large early site, which may have continued elsewhere after ca. 6600 BCE. The reuse and reoccupation of the main structure suggest continuity social values in the wider Beisamoun site, even as new forms of mortuary practice suggest social change. The conclusion adds to recent data that the Early to Late Neolithic transition was more gradual and subtle than claimed previously. At the methodological level, this dissertation provides a further example of the benefits of integrating micromorphology during ongoing excavation.

Este trabalho compreende uma abordagem teórico-metodológica para o estudo dos processos de formação (culturais e naturais) da camada preta que recobre o sítio Jabuticabeira II (Santa Catarina). A partir da adaptação da análise de fácies sedimentares foi desenvolvido um método para a descrição, classificação, caracterização e interpretação de sedimentos arqueológicos em sítios estratificados. Tal método foi desenhado para envolver numa mesma abordagem analítica os processos culturais e naturais como agentes ativos na configuração de corpos arqueossedimentares. Na camada preta do sítio Jabuticabeira II, a análise de arqueofácies proposta permitiu aproximar aos comportamentos deposicionais e processos naturais responsáveis pela conformação deste complexo fenômeno de deposição cultural. / This work represents a theoretical and methodological approach for the study of formation processes (both cultural and natural) of the black layer that covers the Jabuticabeira II site (Santa Catarina). From adaptation of sedimentary facies analyses a method for classification, characterization and interpretation of archaeological sediments in stratified sites was developed. Such method aims to embrace in the same analytical approach both cultural and natural processes as active agents in the configuration of archaeosedimentary bodies. In the black layer of Jabuticabeira II, the proposed archaeofacies analyses allowed the approximation of depositional behaviours and natural processes responsible for the conformation of this complex phenomenon of cultural deposition.