Environmental Archaeology Research Papers

The colonisation of North America and subsequent adaptation to climate change are major research foci in the American Southeast. Here, we used the Ideal Free Distribution from Behavioural Ecology and projections of fossil pollen to... more

Excavations conducted at ancient Merv (1992–2000) provided many results on the economy of the ancient city. This paper looks at new evidence for the Sasanian food and fibre industries arising from detailed analyses of the excavated... more

A Jubilee Volume of IANSA editorial - what´s going on in archaeology 2020 in relation to the natural sciences?

Excavation at Gröf, an early modern inland farm in Iceland’s southern Skaftártunga region, reveals a faunal assemblage dominated by fragmented and burned whale bone. To date, no other inland assemblages exhibiting these characteristics... more

Much detail regarding the early development of stone architecture in Egypt remains unclear. Prevailing studies tend to focus on the contribution of religious and socio-economic factors, but the role of environmental elements should not be... more

Záchranný výzkum; nález zemědělského sídliště z 12. století s doklady železářského hutnictví a izolovaně umístěné studny z 15. století s výrazným environmentálním záznamem.

The 19th century was an era of increasing mechanization and globalization, which transformed maritime networks and shipbuilding in and beyond the Mediterranean. Shipwrecks offer valuable physical evidence of such maritime connectivity and... more

Dreibrodt, S., Hofmann, R., Siposc, G., Schwark, L., Videikoe, M., Shatilo, L., Martini, S., Saggaug, P., Bork, H.-R., Kirleis, W., Duttmann, R., Müller, J., 2020. Holocene soil erosion in Eastern Europe-land use and/or climate... more

Dreibrodt, S., Hofmann, R., Siposc, G., Schwark, L., Videikoe, M., Shatilo, L., Martini, S., Saggaug, P., Bork, H.-R., Kirleis, W., Duttmann, R., Müller, J., 2020. Holocene soil erosion in Eastern Europe-land use and/or climate controlled? The example of a catchment at the Giant Chalcolithic settlement at Maidanetske, central Ukraine, Geomorphology Volume 367, 107302, 1-12.

The Younger Quaternary erosion history was reconstructed in a catchment close to the Chalcolithic giant settlement Maidanetske, central Ukraine based on dated sediment sequences. Four trenches and a long percussion drill-core were analyzed in a valley grading from a Loess covered plateau towards the Talianky River. The sediments were dated by a combination of radiocarbon dating, optical stimulated luminescence (OSL) and embedded artifacts. Although there is some weakness of numerical dating so far, a non-coincidence between phases of soil erosion and the local and regional settlement history over long periods of the Holocene is indicated. This, viewed in the light of the geographical setting of the site in the climate sensitive forest-steppe borderland, suggests climatically driven erosion processes. The detected phases of erosion coincide with global (cal 27.6 ± 1.3 kyrs BP, 12.0 ± 0.4 kyrs BP), northern hemispheric (cal 8.5 ± 0.3 kyrs BP), Mediterranean (cal 3.93 ± 0.1 kyrs BP) as well as western to central European (2700 to 2000 cal BP) climate anomalies. Increased occurrences of heavy precipitation events, probably during phases of a weakened vegetation cover, could explain the observed record. Investigations at additional sites in Eastern Europe are needed to verify the representativeness of the presented record from central Ukraine at a regional level. The composition of the sediments indicates changes of the slope-channel connectivity during the deposition history. Whereas the glacial to early Holocene and modern times sediments were derived from the whole catchment area, during the mid-to late-Holocene a tendency to lower slope storage of colluvial material and valley incision is indicated.

Presentation of research from my MPhil dissertation: In light of current climate change, it is increasingly imperative to construct highly resolved long-term climate models to understand the historical dimensions of climatic variability.... more

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Tell es-Sultan/Jericho through the ages: an updated synthesis of archaeological monuments and finds in the light of the relationships between the human community and the surrounding environment.

史前时代中国起源的粟黍和西亚起源的小麦、大麦在河西走廊双向传播过程的研究，对于认识欧亚大陆东西方文化交流的历史具有重要意义。文章通过梳理和对比河西走廊及其邻近地区考古遗址出土的植物大化石、骨骼碳氮同位素结果和种子碳十四测年结果，探讨距今 5000 － 3000 年粟黍西渐和麦类东传的时间和路线，认为在距今 5000 年前后随着马家窑文化西进至河西走廊，粟黍农业在距今 5000 － 4400 年传播至河西走廊并得以发展，在距今 4400 － 4200... more

In northwestern China, many historical nomadic kingdoms and Chinese dynasties sought to control the Heihe River basin, an important location on the eastern part of the ancient Silk Road. Archaeologists have argued that changes in material... more

In recent years, archaeologists have studied how ancient humans have shaped, and been shaped by, their surrounding environments in an effort to provide valuable insight into the patterns of human-environment interaction during prehistoric... more

Environmental Archaeology

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