147 research outputs found
Evidence for a mid-Holocene drowning from the Atacama Desert coast of Chile
No full textCoastal archaeological communities were exposed to numerous risks associated with living in their liminal environment. Many of the problems faced by these populations have been recorded and interpreted through their skeletal remains, but death by drowning in saltwater is not easy to recognise and as such is invariably either ignored, inferred, or discounted as a possible cause of death. Here we develop and test an enhanced microscopic marine fingerprinting methodology to determine the death by drowning of a ∼5000 year old coastal hunter-gatherer from the hyperarid coast of northern Chile. Through the application of this forensic method, we were able to detect the presence of a range of exogenous microscopic material that allows us to postulate his death because of drowning in the nearshore environment. This methodology has the potential to greatly enrich our understanding of past human-environment interactions not only in northern Chile but also around the world's coastlines. How pervasive was drowning in prehistory particularly along an active, tectonic margin exposed to palaeotsunamis and extreme ENSO-related palaeostorms?</p
Correction for Sear et al., Human settlement of East Polynesia earlier, incremental, and coincident with prolonged South Pacific drought.
No full textCorrection for "Human settlement of East Polynesia earlier, incremental, and coincident with prolonged South Pacific drought," byDavid A. Sear,Melinda S. Allen, JonathanD. Hassall, Ashley E. Maloney, Peter G. Langdon, Alex E. Morrison, Andrew C. G. Henderson, Helen Mackay, Ian W. Croudace, Charlotte Clarke, Julian P. Sachs, Georgiana Macdonald, Richard C. Chiverrell, Melanie J. Leng, L. M. Cisneros-Dozal, and Thierry Fonville, which was first published April 6, 2020; 10.1073/pnas.1920975117 (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117, 8813-8819). The authors note that Emma Pearson should be added to the author list after Thierry Fonville. Emma Pearson should be credited with performing research and analyzing data. The corrected author line, affiliation line, and author contributions appear below. The author line, affiliations, and contributions sections have been corrected online. The authors note that the following statement should be added to the Acknowledgments: "E.P. acknowledges NERC grant BRIS/ 81/0415"
Introduction: Colonial Humanities and Criticality
No full textInternational audienceStarting from the premise that the humanities are still in urgent need of being decolonized and deprovincialized, this forum, titled "The Rise and Decline of 'Colonial Humanities,'" offers insights into the development of the humanities disciplines in what are often referred to as "area studies" (a field itself subject to criticism) since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The forum's perspective on "colonial humanities" acknowledges the violence perpetuated in the name of Euro-American humanities and calls for an in-depth and sustained investigation into the construction of racism and prejudice across our fields. Case studies focus on the "local" development of philology in Turkey (Leezenberg), on critical "coauthorship" with local scholars in literary and historical studies (Berber/Amazigh studies) in Algeria (Merolla), and on the need for increased criticality and self-awareness in the fast-changing field of lexicography (Sear and Turin). The forum is rounded out with a commentary and reflection by Shamil Jeppie
Stress in paradise: Reconstructing late holocene hydroclimate to investigate the role of drought in the timing of human migration and colonisation in the tropical South Pacific
No full textThe South Pacific was the final frontier of human colonisation on Earth. Human migration across the Pacific occurred in two waves, the first started 3000 yr BP and saw the Lapita civilisation colonise remote Oceania eastward to Samoa. After a long pause of 2000 years, the second occurred at approximately 1000 yr BP and saw the colonisation of eastern Polynesia out to the three corners of the Polynesian Triangle. Reasons for these migrations are contested, but climate is increasingly thought to have been a factor. Despite high levels of precipitation in this region, drought is prevalent and palaeoclimate evidence suggests the South Pacific has experienced shifts between dry and wet periods throughout the past three thousand years. Drought has significant repercussions for small Pacific islands, affecting both water and food resources. The aim of this thesis is to identify how the climate has changed over the Holocene in this region and to assess whether changing climate was a pivotal driver in the timing of human migration and colonisation. Using a sequence of cores from Emaotfer Swamp located on the island of Efate in Vanuatu and Lake Tiriara, located on the island of Mangaia in the Southern Cook Islands, this study utilises a multi-proxy approach, which includes stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N from organic matter as well as δ18O and δ13C from carbonate) as well as Itrax µXRF profiles and diatoms to create new palaeo records. This thesis presents new 9,200 and 2,500-year environmental and climatic record from Emaotfer Swamp and Lake Tiriara respectively. The key findings from the palaeoenvironmental records show evidence for a shift towards dry conditions around 500-2300 ± 160 yr BP in the Emaotfer record and 1590-860 ± 126 cal yr BP and 650-470 ± 102 yr BP in the Tiriara record. This indicates that there was a notable change in hydroclimate conditions around the second wave of human migration into Eastern Polynesia and in the relatively early stages of colonisation. To unravel the connection between climate and impacts on island life, this thesis also presents a new socio-ecological model of prehistoric Pacific island life. The model identifies the impact of changing hydroclimate on agricultural carrying capacity and population dynamics to reinforce the evidence for a potential connection between the changing climate identified by palaeoenvironmental records and the dynamics of early Pacific island societies. The model outputs suggest that drought has a greater impact on population dynamics the closer to the absolute carrying capacity the population gets and that severity of the drought rather than the frequency is the key factor determining the impact of a drought on agricultural outputs and population dynamics. This thesis offers firstly, new insights into climatic and hydrological change during the Holocene, across the two waves of human migration in the tropical South Pacific - a region that is relatively under-represented in terms of palaeo-environmental research. Secondly, this thesis presents a new socio-ecological model of Pacific island life that provides insights into the pressure of environmental change on these early Polynesian societies following colonisation
Sources and impacts of inorganic and organic fine sediment in salmonid spawning gravels in chalk rivers
No full textPoor salmonid spawning habitat due to excessive fine sediment inputs has been identified as a major factor limiting survival in chalk rivers. A lack of knowledge about the complex processes and factors affecting survival was the driver for this study and gaps in the research were identified concerning the sources of fine sediment and the impact organic material had on salmonid survival in chalk streams. Consequently the main objectives of this study were to characterise spawning habitat quality of a chalk catchment, assess the sources of sediments accumulating within artificial redds, describe the composition of organic sediments using emerging technology and to create a novel method to assess the sediment oxygen consumption of those sediments. Methods were based around a catchment wide field based monitoring programme, consisting of artificially constructed spawning gravels which allowed hyporheic measurements to be taken, and sediment analysis and sediment oxygen consumption methods were carried out using different laboratory methods. Spawning habitat characteristics of the chalk catchment were found to exhibit; low sediment accumulation rates although original levels of fine sediment were high, high organic matter content, variable intra-gravel flow and intra-gravel oxygen concentrations and groundwater influences. Primary sources of fine sediment accumulating in spawning gravels and suspended sediments were found to be attributed to catchment surface sources, namely pasture (50-68%) and arable (32-50%) using inorganic and organic parameters. Organic composition of redd gravels was found to be dominated by protein material rather than humic substances, the more commonly found fluorescent compound in freshwater systems and the sediment oxygen consumption of sediments varied throughout the catchment and was found to consume the greatest oxygen in <63?m size fraction. Application of sediment oxygen consumption rates to existing parameter based models that predict salmonid survival, highlighted the need to address the sensitivity of current models to rivers experiencing low sediment accumulation rates. Outcomes of this study further the knowledge of the sources, organic composition and sediment oxygen consumption capacity of fine sediments accumulating in spawning gravels which can lead to appropriate mitigation on chalk rivers to improve salmonid spawning habitat
Outer suburban/interface services and development committee inquiry into liveability options in outer suburban Melbourne
No full textThis report presents a range of options for enhancing the liveability of Melbourne’s outer suburbs. Melbourne has an international reputation as one of the world’s most liveable cities. However, many areas within Melbourne’s outer suburbs currently lag behind the rest of Greater Melbourne on a range of liveability measures. On a number of those measures, the gap is growing.
This situation is primarily due to the rapid pace at which Melbourne’s outer suburbs have expanded in recent years. There are a range of options for preserving and enhancing the liveability of Melbourne’s outer suburbs, many of which are increasingly being adopted by residents, community groups and local governments.
The Government of Victoria has also indicated that preserving and enhancing the liveability of Greater Melbourne will be a major priority for the new Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Strategy
Kanza and Osage: Language Materials, Revival and the Necessity for Phonetic Analysis
No full textIn this thesis I explore the possibility, and practicality, of revival of Kanza, a dead\ud
Siouan language from Oklahoma. In particular, I examine the pedagogical language materials\ud
that have been created via existing documentation of the language by focusing on the three\ud
most comprehensive materials created to date: a reader, a board game and a dictionary. This\ud
project, inspired by my internship at the Kaw Nation Language Department (KNLD), was\ud
conducted by examining these materials, interviewing individuals involved in their creation and\ud
referencing existing literature on language revitalization.\ud
In addition to examining pedagogical materials produced by the KNLD I address\ud
whether they can appeal to both a community- and academia- focused audience at the same\ud
time; to do this I reference Carolyn Quintero's Osage Grammar (2004) and Osage Dictionary\ud
(2009) that tries to tread this line. I then segue into an explanation of how phonetic analysiswhich\ud
Quintero was never able to conduct-will add to the corpus of Osage documentation, the\ud
creation of further pedagogical materials and new modes of classroom instruction. I then\ud
conclude with my own preliminary phonetic analysis of the vowels /0 i 0 u e/ that occur in\ud
Osage
Talking Indian: Identity and Language Revitalization in the Chickasaw Renaissance (Jenny L. Davis)
No full textSecwépemc People, Land, and Laws: Yerí7 re Stsq'ey's-kucw (Marianne Ignace and Ronald E. Ignace)
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