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- Barton, Nick, et al.
(author)
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New insights into the late Middle Stone Age occupation of Oued elAkarit, southern Tunisia
- 2021
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In: Libyan Studies. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0263-7189 .- 2052-6148. ; 52, s. 12-35
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article reports on a new project to investigate the activities of early Homo sapiens in the area of the Chotts ‘megalake’ in southernTunisia. Excavations in 2015 and 2019 at Oued el Akarit revealed one of a number of Middle Stone Age (MSA) horizons near the topof a long sequence of Upper Pleistocene deposits. The site identified as Oued el Akarit (Sondage 8) consists of lithic artefacts, bone fragmentsof large ungulates and pieces of ostrich eggshell. Many of the objects are burnt. Excavation of about nine square metres revealed thatthese were associated with a lightly trampled and combusted occupation surface. Amongst the identified artefacts were Levallois flakes someof which could be refitted, thereby indicating the generally undisturbed nature of the occupation. The lithic finds also included side scrapersand other tools diagnostic of the MSA but significantly no bifacial or tanged tools. OSL (Optically Stimulated Luminescence) dating of thesediments and AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) radiocarbon dating of ostrich eggshell have produced uncalibrated age determinationsin the range 37,000–40,000 years ago, one of the youngest ages for MSA sites in the region. This is the first example of a securely dated laterMSA occupation in a riparian environment in south-eastern Tunisia
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| 3. |
- Macphail, Richard I., 1950-, et al.
(author)
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European ancient settlements : a guide to their composition and morphology based on soil micromorphology and associated geoarchaeological techniques; introducing the contrasting sites of Chalcolithic Borduşani-Popină, Borcea River, Romania and the Viking Age Heimdaljordet, Vestfold, Norway
- 2017
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In: Quaternary International. - Oxford : Pergamon Press. - 1040-6182 .- 1873-4553. ; 460, s. 30-47
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Specific soil micromorphological, broader geoarchaeological and environmental archaeology signatures of settlement activities and land use have been identified from numerous case studies across Europe – from Romania to western Norway. In order to demonstrate how such investigations contribute to our understanding of settlement morphology and its wider landscape, an improved way of organising site-specific information or guide was created (Macphail and Goldberg, in press). Activities and land use are divided into 'Within Settlement', 'Peripheral to Settlement' and 'The Settlement's Wider Landscape'. Major themes identified are: Constructions (and materials), Trackways and paths (and other communication/transport-associated features), Animal Management, Water Management, Waste Disposal (1: middening; 2: human waste), Specialist Domestic and Industrial Activities and Funerary Practices. In the case of trackway deposits, their characterisation aids the identification of intensely occupied areas compared to rural communications, although changing land use within urban areas has also produced 'rural signatures' (e.g. as associated with animal management), for example in Late Roman cities. Specialist activities such as fish and crop processing or working with lead and other metals, in-field and within-wall manuring, stabling and domestic occupation floor-use evidence, and identification of different funerary practice – cremations, boat graves and other inhumations, and excarnation features – and peripheral constructions such as boat-houses, are also noted. New information from the Chalcolithic tell site of Borduşani-Popină, Romania and seasonally occupied Viking settlement of Heimdaljordet, Norway, is introduced.
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| 4. |
- Macphail, Richard I., 1950-, et al.
(author)
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Integrated microstratigraphic investigations of coastal archaeological soils and sediments in Norway : the Gokstad ship burial mound and its environs including the Viking harbour settlement of Heimdaljordet, Vestfold
- 2013
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In: Quaternary International. - : Elsevier. - 1040-6182 .- 1873-4553. ; 315, s. 131-146
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Investigations of past coastal landscape development have included soil micromorphology, chemistry and microfossil recording of soils and sediments associated with marine inundation and terrestrial soil formation in marine sediments. This paper reports on similarly studied site formation processes at Norwegian coastal sites in Vestfold, Norway: the Viking Period Gokstad Ship Burial Mound and nearby contemporary harbour site of Heimdaljordet. At Gokstad, strategically-focused coring revealed mound composition and an example of its buried soil and geology. The latter investigation suggested that post glacial uplift led to a ‘slowstand’ period of intertidal reworking of till before ∼700 BC emergence and development of terrestrial soils. At Heimdaljordet, typically laminated intertidal silty clay loam sediments were sealed by beach sands, into which, for example, a boat grave was dug. Post-depositional processes affecting the Gokstad Mound were compared to those in other mounds, including those recorded in experimental earthworks. Waterlogged conditions in the Gokstad mound led to iron–phosphate migration and preferential deposition of vivianite in turf layers where relict litter (L) layers remained visible, and where wood chips from constructional activities are also very well preserved (as is the long ship itself). These soil insights and other paleoenvironmental studies of the buried soil and numerous turf sequences showed that the contemporary AD 900 Viking landscape was totally terrestrial. It had become wet sedge grassland managed for grazing. The partial weathering of turves and anomalous presence within them of ‘fresh’ roots apparently indicates the possibility that turves were stacked and stored ahead of mound building. The 10th C robber trench had developed muddy features, and rooting traces show that it was not backfilled, but was slowly infilled by humic soil silting from turf mound layers. This event did not affect the overall anaerobic burial conditions in the mound, which can be starkly compared to those at the Heimdaljordet boat grave. Here, because of acidic subaerial weathering, the wooden boat only survives as an acidic pellety humus formed of wood residues that are often ferruginised. Iron appears to be concentrated at iron nail locations. Unlike the Gokstad mound, no bone survives, but one sample found a typical ‘body stain’ of secondary iron and phosphate close by the iron encrusted sword in the grave (potentially the pelvic region of the inhumation). Here, mineralised faecal gut remains have an assumed hydroxyapatite composition, and embed phytoliths and pollen/spores, as found in human coprolites and cess deposits studied elsewhere.
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- Macphail, Richard I, 1950-, et al.
(author)
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Speculations on farming development during the early Iron Age of southern Norway (500 bc–ad 550), focusing on the Dobbeltspor Dilling Project
- 2022
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In: Inspired geoarchaeologies: past landscapes and social change. - Cambridge : McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. - 9781913344092 ; , s. 145-155
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- British and international geoarchaeologists, with majorpractitioners such as Professor French at Cambridge, have developed a worldwide reputation for innovative interdisciplinary study. Such workers have been privileged to be involved with expert teams around the globe. Here, representatives of a large multi-national archaeological and paleoenvironmental team present an interdisciplinary thematic case – the prehistoric development of mixed farming in Norway. A decade of research, including a two-year investigation of the c. 5.5-hectare site of Dobbeltspor Dilling, Østfold, has produced a large database for improving our modelling of early Iron Age (500 bc–ad 550) mixed farming in southern Norway. At Dilling, 137 houses/different house phases (e.g. three-aisled buildings), and other settlement features such as fields, trackways and pit houses were excavated, with environmental archaeology samples undergoing geochemical, macrofossil, and soil micromorphological analyses. This new dataset, archaeological stratigraphy and finds recovery allow speculation on the development of sustainable farming during this early Iron Age period, which is not only relevant to Norway but appears to be consistentwith findings from western Europe as a whole.
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