Archaeological Soil Micromorphology Workshop

Programme of Presentations

Oral Presentations

All oral presentations will be given in the seminar room on the ground floor of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Courtyard Building.

Both a PC and a Mac are available for Powerpoint presentations. Please indicate your preference when you register.

Speakers on Tuesday April 17: Please see Karen Milek, who will help you to load your presentations before your session starts.

Speakers on Wednesday April 18: Please see Manuel Arroyo-Kalin, who will help you to load your presentations before your session starts.

Each speaker has been allotted 20 minutes, including time for questions. Speakers may organise their time as they wish, but we would recommend 15 minutes for the presentation and 5 minutes for questions.

Tuesday April 17
Session 1: Micromorphological Studies of Occupation Deposits Session Chair: Charles French
11:00	Karen Milek	Floor formation processes in houses and byres: ethno-geoarchaeological research in recently abandoned turf buildings in Iceland
11:20	Ruth Shahack-Gross, Rosa-Maria Albert, Dan Cabanes, Ayelet Gilboa, Simcha Lev-Yadun, Marta Portillo, Ilan Sharon, Elisabetta Boaretto and Steve Weiner	Formation processes of phytolith-rich layers in the Bronze and Iron Age strata at the urban site of Tel Dor, Israel: micromorphology, ethnoarchaeology and interpretational difficulties
11:40	Miranda Semple	The micromorphology of courtyards: a palimpsest of anthropogenic activities and natural processes
12:00	Richard Macphail	A Middle Neolithic (Yangshao) floor sequence at Huizui, Henan Province, north China
Wednesday April 18
Session 2: Micromorphological Studies of Landcapes, Land Use, and Resources Session Chair: Miranda Semple
11:00	Manuel A. Arroyo-Kalin, W. A. Neves, R. Kipnis and A. Araujo	Micromorphological interpretations of the stratigraphy of the Boleiras archaeological site, Minas Gerais, Brazil
11:20	D. J. Huisman, D. C. M. Raemaekers and A. G. Jongmans	Investigating Early Neolithic land use in Swifterbant (NL) using micromorphological techniques
11:40	Federica Sulas, Charles French and Marco Madella	Geoarchaeological investigations of the Aksum area in the northern Ethiopian highlands
12:00	Louise Joyner	A petrographic study of Late Neolithic clay-based construction materials from Makriyalos, Macedonia, Greece

Poster Presentations

All posters will be displayed in the McBurney Geoarchaeology Laboratory, on the fourth floor of the West Building.

Manuel A Arroyo-Kalin, C. French, M. San Román, F. Morelo, F. Martin, A. Prieto and P. Cárdenas	Micromorphological investigations in Magallanes, Chile
Heejin Lee	Soil micromorphology of prehistoric paddy fields in Korea
Ana Polo-Diaz	Stall deposits in rock-shelter contexts during the Neolithic in the North Ebro River Valley. Micromorphology and new interpretations on the socio-economic system in the Basque area: first results
Lisa Shillito	Integrating micromorphology and chemical microanalysis to investigate midden formation processes and cultural activities at Neolithic Çatalhöyük
Burcu Tung	Building materials at Çatalhöyük, Turkey

Micromorphology Workshop Abstracts

Tuesday April 17

Session 1: Micromorphological Studies of Occupation Deposits

Floor formation processes in houses and byres: ethno-geoarchaeological research in recently abandoned turf buildings in Iceland

Karen Milek

Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, United Kingdom

and Institute of Archaeology, Iceland, Bárugata 3, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland

In order to prepare for a geoarchaeological study of Viking Age houses, an ethno-geoarchaeological study was carried out in recently abandoned nineteenth- and early twentieth-century turf buildings at the farm of Þverá, in the Laxárdalur valley, northeast Iceland. The former occupant of the house was a rich source of information about how space in the house, the attached cattle byre, and the sheephouse had been used, and how the floors in these buildings had been maintained on a daily and yearly basis. Micromorphology samples from floor deposits in different activity areas in these buildings revealed that the preservation of evidence for the use of space was highly variable. While the floors of the cattle byre, the sheep house, the fuel storage area, the kitchen and the heavily trampled central corridor contained distinctive residues, microstructures, and in some cases crystalline pedofeatures, other activity areas would be more difficult to distinguish on the basis of their floor deposits alone. Moreover, the study showed that floor maintenance practices had a profound impact on the final composition and microstructure of the floor sediments, sometimes dominating the evidence for how space had been used on a daily basis. The floor formation processes observed at Þverá corroborated the results of other ethnoarchaeological and experimental studies, but also highlighted new processes that should be taken into consideration by archaeologists attempting to study activity areas in northern Europe and the North Atlantic region.

Formation processes of phytolith-rich layers in the Bronze and Iron Age strata at the urban site of Tel Dor, Israel: micromorphology, ethnoarchaeology and interpretational difficulties

Ruth Shahack-Gross^{1, 2}, Rosa-Maria Albert³, Dan Cabanes⁴, Ayelet Gilboa⁵, Simcha Lev-Yadun⁶, Marta Portillo³, Ilan Sharon⁷, Elisabetta Boaretto², and Steve Weiner²

¹ The Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel

²The Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel

³ Catalan Institution for Research and Advances Studies (ICREA)/Research Group for Palaeocological and Geoarchaeological Studies - Dept. of Prehistory, Ancient History and Archaeology, Universitat de Barcelona, c| Montalegre, 6-8. 08001Barcelona, Spain

⁴ Àrea de Prehistòria, Dept. Geografia i Història, Universitat Rovira i Virgili / IPHES, Plaça Imperial Tarraco nº1, 43005 Tarragona, Spain

⁵Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel

⁶ Department of Biology, University of Haifa - Oranim, Tivon 36006, Israel

⁷ Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel

At least eight layers composed mainly of opaline phytoliths were identified in Bronze and Iron Age strata in the urban tell site of Dor (Israel). These layers contain phytoliths from wild grasses and domestic bread wheat. Their phytolith assemblages show high abundance of inflorescence phytoliths. While the phytolith assemblages of these layers are roughly similar, these layers show much variability with regard to their archaeological context, presence of dung spherulites, microstructure, presence of authigenic phosphate nodules and evidence for burning. Drawing upon ethnoarchaeological studies of agro-pastoral societies in the Near East, we (Albert et al., in press) propose that most of these layers are the remnants of livestock dung. Some of the layers are in primary deposition and were livestock enclosures. This interpretation is largely based on previous geo-ethno-archaeological studies showing that livestock enclosure sediments are characterized by a micro-laminated structure, large amounts of phytoliths, the presence of authigenic phosphate nodules and dung spherulites. Other layers represent re-deposited dung after being used as fuel, based on the presence of burned phytoliths, spherulites, and a few small micro-laminated domains in an overall massive microstructure. Two of the unburnt phytolith-rich layers do not have a micro-laminated structure, but do include dung spherulites. Another layer is micro-laminated but does not include dung spherulites. Their modes of formation are not well understood. This study shows that livestock dung is a major component in the sedimentary remains even in an early urban environment such as Tel Dor.

Reference:

Albert, R. M., Shahack-Gross, R., Cabanes, D., Gilboa, A., Lev-Yadun, S., Portillo, M., Sharon, I., Boaretto, E. Weiner, S. (in press). Phytolith-rich layers from the Late Bronze and Iron Ages at Tel Dor (Israel): mode of formation and archaeological significance. Journal of Archaeological Science.

The micromorphology of courtyards: a palimpsest of anthropogenic activities and natural processes

Miranda Semple

Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, UK

An integral component of ancient near eastern buildings are courtyards. Constructed and maintained for the practices of daily life, courtyards accumulate the debris of activities, are exposed to weathering and, are renewed and resurfaced through generations of use. The result of this complex interaction of cultural agents and natural processes is a sequence of occupation surfaces that become a repository of environmental conditions and an historical record of daily life. Using micromorphology to explore the dynamic interplay between agents and processes, I examine courtyards from sites in the Khabur region of North-eastern Syria.

A Middle Neolithic (Yangshao) floor sequence at Huizui, Henan Province, north China

Richard Macphail

Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY, UK

Wednesday April 18

Session 2: Micromorphological Studies of Landscapes, Land Use, and Resources

Micromorphological interpretations of the stratigraphy of the Boleiras archaeological site, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Manuel A. Arroyo-Kalin¹, W.A. Neves², R. Kipnis², and A. Araujo²

¹ Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, UK

² Laboratório de Evolução Humana, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

Caves and similar features in karstic landscapes provide important opportunities for the accumulation of archaeological remains. In this paper we present micromorphological observations and interpretations of the stratigraphic sequence of Boleiras, a cave site in the Lagoa Santa karstic region, highlighting the significance of ash deposits for the preservation of archaeological materials.

Investigating Early Neolithic land use in Swifterbant (NL) using micromorphological techniques

D.J. Huisman¹, D. C. M. Raemaekers², and A .G. Jongmans³

¹ Netherlands Heritage, P.O. Box 1600, 3800 BP, Amersfoort, The Netherlands

² University of Groningen, Groningen Institute of Archaeology, P.O. Box 716,
9700 AS, Groningen, The Netherlands

³ Wageningen University Research Centre, Soil Inventarization and Land Evaluation, PO Box 37, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands

The Swifterbant area (central Netherlands) contains approximately a dozen Early Neolithic sites (ca. 5500 - 5200 BP) associated with the deposits from a former river system. Sites are 225-2700 m² in size and consist of a thick (0.25-1 m) layer of black soil material containing large amounts of charcoal, burnt bone, flint and pottery. These layers are usually interpreted as occupation or refuse layers. Several sites also included burials. The type of land use in Early Neolithic times is a point of discussion. Interpretations range from (seasonal?) hunting and possibly herding camps to permanent inhabitation and growing of crops.

Micromorphological investigations show that the lower half of the black soil layer at one site consists of the upper layers of a decalcified soil profile, thoroughly mixed with finely distributed organic matter and large fragments of charcoal and bone. This is interpreted as a buried soil that has been tilled for agricultural production. The upper half of the black soil layer consists mainly of plant remains, ashes, burnt organic material and intercalated sedimentation layers. This layer was probably formed under almost permanently wet conditions. The preservation of micro-scale layering in soft sediments indicates an almost complete lack of trampling. This is at odds with the theory that the sites were formed by intensive permanent or semi-permanent inhabitation. The sediment overlying the black soil layer, and in the periphery of a second site, shows disturbed layering and contains numerous rounded or subrounded soil aggregates of variable size. This indicates repeated soil disturbance, possibly caused by pigs.

On the basis of these result we can suppose that sites in the Swifterbant area were used initially not only for hunting, but also for agriculture and animal husbandry. Drowning of the area by the Holocene sea-level rise caused termination of soil tillage, but hunting and (possibly) animal husbandry continued. The accumulation of organic materials on the sites points to a continuation of intensive land-use under wet conditions.

Geoarchaeological investigations of the Aksum area in the northern Ethiopian highlands

Federica Sulas¹, Charles French¹, and Marco Madella²

¹ Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, UK

² Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Institución Mila’ y Fontanals, C/Egipciaques 08001, Barcelona, Spain

Geoarchaeological investigations in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopian highlands have the aim of elucidating the environmental sequence history of the Aksum area. Aksum was capital of a state polity that arose in the region during the 1^st millennium AD, and gradually extended its control over the Red Sea. Although a long tradition of multi-disciplinary research has partially reconstructed the late Holocene occupation of the area, the local environmental history remains largely unexplored. A geoarchaeological survey is focusing on the study of target areas across Aksum’s landscape, following site density and current hydrological patterns, in order to gather site-specific data for reconstructing the soil palaeo-catena and to investigate the soil/sediment development sequences in relation to the effects of Holocene climatic and anthropic influences.

The current model suggests that the Ethiopian highlands were covered by forest in antiquity, and then abruptly de-vegetated due to the emergence of state polities during the late Holocene. Accelerating soil erosion and massive land clearance is commonly associated with the Aksumite periods (1^st millennium BC – 1^st millennium AD). The preliminary findings of our research seem to advocate a rather different scenario. A preliminary sequence of interrelated events has been identified through the study of exposed profiles along the Gudguad Agazen-May Hibai water system. Field observations and micromorphological analyses indicate that a period of temperature amelioration and vegetation development at the beginning of the Holocene favoured the onset of stable environmental conditions and soil development. Subsequently, alternating periods of relatively little alluviation and incipient soil formation possibly indicate a low energy environment with minor soil erosion and re-deposition, suggesting relatively minimal anthropic disturbance and/or well-managed land use. Major colluviation phases and modern gully incisions appear to be associated only with the very recent past of the Aksum area.

A petrographic study of Late Neolithic clay-based construction materials from Makriyalos, Macedonia, Greece

Louise Joyner

School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University, Humanities Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU, Wales

Clay-based construction materials that include floors, walls, daub, mudbrick, superstructures, ovens/hearths and a grill were sampled from a Late Neolithic site near Makriyalos. The site was discovered during the construction of a new railway line in 1992, and subsequently excavated by the Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Thessaloniki from 1993 to 1995. It is one of the largest non-tell sites in Macedonia, located on a main North-South trade route, approximately two kilometres from the coast. Forty-two samples were taken spanning the two phases of the site Phase I and Phase II and comparative clay samples were taken in the vicinity of the site. The samples were analysed petrographically to explore the use and manipulation of raw materials for a variety of functional uses in the construction of the site. Several fabrics span Phases I and II, while others are Phase specific. The relationship between fabric and function is not consistent.

Micromorphology Workshop Poster Presentations

Micromorphological investigations in Magallanes, Chile

Manuel A Arroyo-Kalin¹, Charles French¹, Manuel San Román², Flavia Morelo², Fabiana Martin², Alfredo Prieto² and Pedro Cárdenas²

¹ Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, UK

² Centro de Estudios del Hombre Austral, Instituto de la Patagonia, Universidad de Magallanes and Centro de Estudios del Cuaternario Fuego-Patagonia y Antártica

This poster provides preliminary micromorphological observations on the litho-stratigraphy of Cueva de los Chingues (Magallanes, Chile), an important archaeological site recording evidence for the terminal Pleistocene human colonisation of continental southern Patagonia.

Soil micromorphology of prehistoric paddy fields in Korea

Heejin Lee

Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, UK

Rice agriculture requires a special form of cultivation due to its preference for a damp habitat. Rice plants have to sit under the water for several months to grow, so field systems are designed to offer artificially waterlogged conditions. However, in conjunction with periodical water fluctuations inside the field system, successive land use and environment effects on soil make it hard to recognize the characteristics of ancient paddy fields and to study archaeological subjects closely linked to rice cultivation. Thus, it is necessary to apply geoarchaeologial methods and perspectives to rice agriculture studies.

Samples were collected from Gulwha, South Korea. This region is well known for the earliest Bronze Age paddy field site, Okhyun. The flat flood plain where these sites are located appears to resemble the natural habitat of rice plants. The Gulwha site is believed to have been cultivated since the Bronze Age, and provides the opportunity to investigate initial rice adaptation and cultivation through a consideration of the trajectory of in situ, evolving soil. In addition, to establish the history of land use over time, the project aims to investigate the change from primitive rice cultivation to advanced agriculture.

Micromorphological analysis is expected to provide an effective tool to understand soil characteristics generated by rice cultivation and post-depositional processes. In this site, it is assumed that both the repeated seasonal flooding of the river Taewha and the intentional waterlogging of the paddy fields will have resulted in soil that was subjected to periodic alluviation. Therefore, micromorphological analysis focuses on identifying archaeologically associated features associated with water control and features associated with post-depositional processes, and will be supplemented by phytolith analysis and soil chemical analyses.

Stall deposits in rock-shelter contexts during the Neolithic in the North Ebro River Valley. Micromorphology and new interpretations on the socio-economic system in the Basque area: first results

Ana Polo-Diaz

Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology Department, University of the Basque Country, Francisco Tomás y Valiente, s/n, Apartado 2111, 01006, Vitoria-Gasteiz (Alava), Spain

This work provides the first results on the micromorphological analysis conducted on Neolithic sediments from the site of Los Husos II in order to characterize the formation processes of the deposit. This study contributes to a new interpretation of the role which activities in rock-shelter contexts play in the socio-economic system of early societies in the North Ebro River Valley area. The traditional view of the socio-economic system developed by Neolithic societies in the Basque area is that they exhibit a dual character, depending mainly on environmental conditions: human groups associated with agricultural practices would be settled in the Mediterranean area whereas pastoral communities would be relegated to the mountainous Cantabrian area.

The deposit of Los Husos II holds a broad Neolithic sequence composed mainly of a succession of thick ashy and fine dark organic layers which resembles those associated with stabling deposits in similar environmental and chronological contexts of the Mediterranean basin. The micromorphological analysis aims to characterize the types of anthropogenic and natural sediments (e.g. dung material, ashes, bone material, dark organic matter, and detrital material of natural origin) in order to define the origin and evolution of the Neolithic record at the site of Los Husos II and to test if the results correspond to those usually associated with animal husbandry.

The microstratigraphic study through micromorphological analysis of the sediments from the Neolithic sequence at the site of LHII enables the identification and definition of the cultural and palaeoenvironmental features of the sequence, and in doing so it supports the characterization of the site as a stabling deposit. Moreover, such characterization makes possible the reinterpretation of the defined socio-economic relationships between early societies and their environments in the North Ebro River area and in the related Basque cultural context.

Integrating micromorphology and chemical microanalysis to investigate midden formation processes and cultural activities at Neolithic Çatalhöyük

Lisa-Marie Shillito

Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, RG6 6AH, UK

Micromorphology is becoming increasingly used as a means of investigating site formation processes and cultural activities. The technique is of immense value as it studies deposits in their precise depositional context, allowing us to look at how the material was deposited, as well as looking at the properties of the material itself. Chemical analyses have also become a major focus of archaeological investigation to study properties of deposits and artefacts, including those which are not visible under the microscope. Such studies alone however do not give information on the depositional context of the materials they are analysing. Thus, this research aims to integrate a number of analytical techniques that may enhance and clarify the information that we can get from micromorphology. For example, the use of organic residue analysis to investigate coprolites, one of the major inclusions within the middens at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük, can identify the species that produced the faecal material, and can give a much better interpretation of the context and formation of deposits containing this material.

A further aim is the integration of high resolution sub-sampling for phytolith and mineralogical analyses. Phytoliths are an abundant and well preserved component of deposits at Çatalhöyük, but it is often difficult to fully identify phytolith types in thin section. High resolution sampling of individual layers and processing these for phytolith analysis allows a comparison to be made between phytolith assemblage and the depositional context of the layer from which they were extracted. Twenty large thin sections and over 100 phytolith slides have been prepared for microscopic analysis. This poster presentation gives a summary of the results obtained so far from vibrational microspetroscopy and residue analysis in conjunction with analysis of thin sections under the optical microscope. These results will be used to investigate questions of midden formation processes and seasonality of deposition, as well as diet and resource use at this important site.

Building materials at Çatalhöyük, Turkey

Burcu Tung

Department of Anthropology, University of California, 232 Kroeber Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

In this poster I report on the analysis I have completed on the construction materials used at Çatalhöyük. Using the building materials as a metaphor of the landscape, I explore the importance of movement. I demonstrate how people were tied to a wide landscape where movement was very important in their daily lives. Movement was the essence of economic and symbolic networks. Movement was practiced through and experienced by individuals that were transformed by and at the same time transformed their structures. In pertaining to movement, I show a different perspective of the past that is not tied to the dominant interpretations of the Neolithic.

	© DIG 2007, University of Cambridge, and the authors
	Last modified 13 April 2007
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