Abstracts / Quaternary International 279-280 (2012) 346–461
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At the onset of the Bronze Age culture between the 21st and 17th centuries BC, the region of the Garda lake in N-Italy experienced a sudden increase of short and long-lasting lacustrine villages (i.e. several centuries to more than one millennium). Palaeobotanical and sedimentological studies are fruitful in these waterlogged sites. We describe and compare both micro- and macrofossils from detailed master records of terrestrial and aquatic plant obtained in two lakedwelling archaeological sites near the Garda lake: Lavagnone (Desenzano del Garda, BS) and Lucone (Polpenazze del Garda, BS). The complex interactions between civilization, vegetation and climate change will be addressed by analyzing these high resolution palaeobotanical stratigraphies, spanning from the pre-anthropic situation to the ruralized landscape.
overturned stone steps are well-preserved. The stair arrangement was folded and tilted. The ancient people decided not to re-build or reform the stairs, just only covering by building a new façade. However, the new added structure broke the most particular feature of this building, the symmetry. Finally, the city was abandoned around the VIII AD Century. México DF is nowadays one of the largest megacities of the world. This megacity is located ca. 40 km southward from the Teotihuacán reminds. The 1985 earthquake stroke the city and 10,000 casualties were reached. Critical facilities in these days are: power-supplies, hospitals, schools, and churches, for instance. In contrast with Teotihuacán, the difference is that all of the Teotihuacán reminds are already a critical facility because this ancient city represents a relevant piece of the history and identity of the Mexican people.
A PALEOECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO UNDERSTAND THE IMPACT OF COASTAL CHANGES ON PAST SOCIETIES. USING THE ISLES OF SCILLY AS A CASE STUDY
PALEOENVIRONMENTAL RECONSTRUCTION OF BASA DE LA MORA GLACIAL LAKE (CENTRAL PYRENEES) DURING THE LAST 13 KA CAL YR. BP: A HIGH RESOLUTION PALYNOLOGICAL STUDY
Marta Perez. University of Plymouth, United Kingdom
Ana Pérez-Sanz. Pyrenean Institute of Ecology, Spain
E-mail address:
[email protected]
E-mail address:
[email protected]
Relative sea-level rise is a key factor influencing the subsistence strategies of communities throughout the Holocene. The drowning or inundation of coastal areas has displaced communities as a result of loss or alteration of coastal ecosystems and resources. Islands populations are more sensitive to coastal change owing to constraints on the extent and viability of the terrestrial resource base. The Isles of Scilly, located 28 miles off the South west coast of England, provide a perfect case study for the response of past populations to marine inundation. These islands have been affected by sea-level rise since the Early Holocene. Inundation has resulted in their transformation from one large island, to a group of five inhabited islands and 200 small uninhabited islands and rocks. The aims of this project are: develop palaeographic and archaeological mapping for the Isles of Scilly; reconstruct past land-use and subsistence strategies through the Holocene, using peats that are currently onshore, submerged or in the intertidal zone and explore relationships between changes in vegetation, archaeological and sea-level records. We will also attempt to establish a clear history of sea-level change and to create a model to predict future changes. Changes through the past and predicted changes will be illustrated using a series of dated maps. We will present stratigraphy and results from analyses of cores collected from the two main wetland areas of the Scillies. Terrestrial pollen records are used to detect past changes in local vegetation. Chronologies for these records are derived from optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon dating. Particle-size and organic content analyses are used to reconstruct a storm record. Through studying past sea-level rise and climate change alongside the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental record, we can gain a holistic picture of the drivers behind the shifting inhabitation of the coastal landscape of the Isles of Scilly through time.
La Basa de la Mora (42 330 N, 0 200 E, 1914 m.a.s.l.) is a glacial lake located at the central zone of the Southern Pyrenees (Spain), in the transition area of the Atlantic and Mediterranean realms. The lacustrine record of Basa de la Mora consists in 12 metre long of carbonate silts. The age model is based on 14 radiocarbon dating according to which the sedimentary sequence spans the last ca 13 ka. The age model obtained turns the Basa de la Mora sequence into the best dated record up to date in Southern Pyrenees. Considering the high sedimentation rate registered, the high resolution pollen and sedimentological analyses that are being carried out in the sequence, will provide very detailed information about the paleoenvironmental evolution and palaeoclimatic changes occurred during the Younger Dryas and the whole Holocene in the Pyrenees. Differences in terms of climate conditions and vegetation evolution have been registered along the Pyrenees at the Holocene onset related to the distance of study sites to the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. In order to know the way that the Younger Dryas-Holocene shift took place at this key transitional place, a 1cm resolution palynological study is being developed at the bottom of the sequence. After 9 ka cal BP, vegetation dynamics observed at Basa de la Mora generally well matches the previously known vegetation history of the Southern Pyrenees. A clear vegetation response to intra Holocene climatic oscillations, as it can be the 8.2 ka event, has been recorded with a decrease in both mesophytes and Mediterranean taxa indicating cold and arid conditions in high altitude. First appearances of Tilia, Abies and Fagus ca 8000, 5800 and 4000 cal yr BP respectively, perfectly fit with the known expansion of these key taxa in the Pyrenees. The decline of the forest in the upper part of the sequence seems to be a combined effect of both human activity and abrupt climatic oscillations such as the Little Ice Age.
ANCIENT EARTHQUAKES HIT THE QUETZALCÓATL PYRAMID AT TEOTIHUACÁN (MÉXICO). WAS IT A STRICKEN CRITICAL FACILITY? Raúl Pérez-López. IGME-Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Spain E-mail address:
[email protected]
VEGETATION CHANGE AND THE YOUNGER DRYAS: A CONTINENTALSCALE PERSPECTIVE Matthew Peros. University of Ottawa, Canada E-mail address:
[email protected]
Teotihuacán was one of the largest cities on the world (I-VIII AD centuries). During its glorious times (350-650 AD) almost 125,000 people inhabited the city. Monumental buildings are the Sun and Moon Pyramids (1-150 AD) and the Quetzalcóatl Pyramid (Q-pyramid, built before 350 AD and rebuilt post-350 AD). The tectonic framework within the zone agrees with a strong seismic activity, subduction earthquakes from the convergence between the Rivera and Cocos plates underneath the North America Plate, and intraplate earthquakes. Looking back into the Teotihuacán city critical facilities were: (a) Temples and ceremonial buildings as places for people agglutination, (b) high aristocracy town where lived people that governed the city, (c) defensive strong walls and watchtowers and (d) water supplies. Archaeoseismic evidence suggests that at least one strong earthquake hit the city and damaged the Q-pyramid. It was in the IV AD Century. The West side of the pyramid was partially destroyed and
The impacts of the Younger Dryas on plant communities have been documented at sites worldwide, using proxies such as fossil pollen, plant macrofossils, and geochemical indicators of plant community type. Using information available from the NEOTOMA paleoecological database, as well as other published sources, we provide an overview of the nature of vegetation change at the onset and termination of the Younger Dryas. While we provide a brief discussion of records from locations worldwide, we will focus on North America, where, for example, recently published research has documented a large expansion of Populus (poplar, aspen) at both the onset and termination of the Younger Dryas. This presentation will show that vegetation shifts in response to the Younger Dryas varied in rate and direction depending on the local vegetation communities and the
