"dig" (Developing International geoarchaeology)

DIG2015

“DIG” (Developing International geoarchaeology) (http://www.developinginternationalgeoarchaeology.org/first.html)is the title of a series of international conferences aiming at bringing together a wide variety of international researchers in this interdisciplinary field in order to facilitate discussion, stimulate research, and promote international scholarship.

Venue: Sassari University at Alghero, Department of Architecture and Design, Muralla de l'Hospital (BastioniPigafetta), Aula 7, 07041 Alghero (SS).

Program

DIG2015	Monday 8 June	Afternoon	Half-day excursion to Fordongianus
	(Tue 9 June)	(Afternoon)	(DIG2015) (only registration )
	Wed 10 June	All day	DIG2015 Presentations and Posters Lunch included CONFERENCE DINNER MIRAMARE 8.30 p.m.
	Thurs 11 June	All day	DIG2015 Presentations and Posters (lunch included)
	Fri 12 June	All day	Excursion (with packed lunch)

WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE

9- 9.45 Welcome Addresses by University of Sassari and Architecture and Design Department

9.45 – 9.55 Maria Raimonda Usai. On John B Dalrymple

Morning: Methodology Session - Chair: Maurizio Minchilli

10.00-10.20. Giovanni De Giudici- Characterization of microscopic properties by synchrotron based techniques: an overview and some examples. Continued

10.30-10.50 Susan M. Mentzer, Christopher E. Miller - Applications of micro-FTIR in the identification of phosphate minerals in micromorphology samples from archaeological sites Coffee break
11.00- 11.30 Coffee Break.
(Chair continues: Maurizio Minchilli)

11.30-11.50 Christopher E. Miller, Susan M. Mentzer, Ximena Villagran, David Friesem - Using Fourier-Transform infrared Microspectrometry (micro-FTIR) to assess heat-induced alteration of clays in thin sections from archaeological combustion features: promises and pitfalls

12.00-12.40. Presentation and discussion of posters

(Chair continues: Maurizio Minchilli)

12.00 – 12-10. Matthias Czechowski, Susan Mentzer^,, Christopher Miller^{, -} A GIS-based method for determining heterogeneity of burnt-bone assemblages

12.00-12.20. Lucia Leierer and David Friesem -Identifying char particles using FTIR

12.20-12-30. H. B. Martinez-Dyrzo, S. M. Mentzer^,, C. E. Miller. Variation in morphology and composition of wood-derived ashes—an experimental approach

12.30-12.40 Simone Moser, Barbara Brilmayer Bakti, Martin Kehl -Automated detection and quantification of features in thin sections from archaeological sites

12.40-12-50. Ariana Fernandez, Steve Victor, Reed Morgan, Thomas Fenn, Roderick McIntosh - A New Archaeomagnetic Dating Curve for Peru:Reconstructing the Secular Variation Curve for the Middle and Late Moche

13.00-14.00LUNCH

Wednesday 10 June Afternoon - Chair: Marco Milanese

14.00 – 14.20 - KatjaKothieringer, KarstenLambers - Archaeological, palaeoecological, and pedological evidence of Holocene human-environment interaction in the Silvretta Alps

14.30-14.50. Magnus M. Haaland, David Friesem, Christopher Miller, Christopher S. Henshilwood - Heat-induced alteration of glauconitic minerals in the Middle Stone Age levels of Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for evaluating site structure and burning events

15.00-15.20 AlviseBarbieri, , C.J. Kind, N. J. Conard and C.E. Miller- The impact of landscape changes on the site formation processes of the HohlensteinStadel cave.

15.30-15.50. Nina Helt Nielsen, Søren Much Kristiansen, Kristian Dalsgaard - Geoarchaeological investigations of the Danish Celtic fields at ØsterLemHede, Western Jutland, Denmark

16.00-16.30. Coffee break

(Chair continues: Marco Milanese)

16.30-16.50 Carol Lang and Daryl Stump - A Geoarchaeological Contribution to the Study of Archaeological Agricultural Resilience in Eastern Africa

17.00 – 17.20 Banerjea Rowena Y, Alex Brown, Guillermo García-Contreras Ruiz, Aleks Pluskowski^- ‘Geoarchaeological perspectives on societal change in the landscape in medieval Europe’

17.00-17.30 Presentation and discussion of Posters (Chair continues: Marco Milanese)

17.30- 17.40 M Uzdurum, S Mentzer, J Quade, M Özbaşaran- Geoarchaeological analyses of construction materials from the Neolithic site of AşıklıHöyük, Turkey

17.40-17.50. M. Milanese, Martina Zipoli .Water draining and regimentation in the site of Mesumundu (Siligo, SS). The coracovaccada and the paleoriverbed of area 2700

17.50-18.00. Marco Milanese,Maria Antonietta Zoroddu, Massimiliano Peana,Serenella Medici, Martina Zipoli. Chemistry applied to Archaeology - “The informative potential of the invisible”

Wednesday 10 June at 20.00. CONFERENCE DINNER – Ristorante MIRADOR (Bastioni Marco Polo,63)
THURSDAY 11 JUNE

Morning - Chair: Vincenzo Pascucci

9.00 – 9.20 – V. Pascucci, C. Del Vais, S. Andreucci, G. De Falco, A. Depalmas, A.C. Fariselli, R.T. Melis, G. Pisanu, I. Sanna. Climatic changes and human impact on coastal evolution: the Mistras-Cabras barrier-lagoon system (Oristano Gulf, Central-Western Sardinia)

9.30-9.50 - Rachel Kulick - Micromorphological analyses of an open-air stone structure at the Magdalenian site of PeyreBlanque, France

10.00-10.20 - Erhard Schulz, Attila Bencsik and HoreaCacovean - Wildfire versus slash-and-burn and flaming and the fate of charcoals

10.30-11.00. Coffee break

Chair continues: Vincenzo Pascucci

11.00-11.20, Matt Pickering, Annika Burns,Maria Raimonda Usai,Don Brothwella and Brendan Keely. InterArChive: exploiting the hidden archive in archaeological grave soils 11.30-11.50 – InterArChive team – title t.b.e.

12.00- 12.20 - Maria-Raimonda Usai, Matt Pickering, Scott Hicks, Brendan Keely and Don Brothwell (InterArChive) - Intra-site variation in soils from archaeological human burials at Fewston, North Yorkshire, UK

12.30-13.00 . Carol Lang, Maria-Raimonda Usai, Brendan Keely, Don Brothwell . InterArChive - soils from  archaeological burials: The mass graves at Fromelles and Ridgeway

13.00-14.00 LUNCH

Afternoon Chair: Brendan Keely

14.00-14.20. Flora Schilt, Susan Mentzer, David Wright, Jessica Thompson, Christopher E. Miller, Elizabeth Gomani-Chindebvu - Reconstruction of the formation of iron-manganese nodule accumulations associated with Middle Stone Age artefacts in a lateritic profile in northern Malawi

14.30-14.50. Mario Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, Margarita Orfila Pons, Paul Goldberg, Francisco José Martín Peinado, Thomas Schattner, Wolfram Martini, Marcelo Castro - Urban Transformation and Site Formation Processes in the Roman cities of Hispania: a micromorphological view

15.00-15.20. L Wilson, A Agam, R Barkai, A Gopher- Sources of lithic raw materials at Qesem Cave, Israel: Analysis of a preliminary set of thin sections.

15.30-15.50. Maria Raimonda Usai, Angelo Aru, Sergio Vacca, Rita Melis. Soil Associations and Nuragic palaeosettlement distribution in the Marmilla Trexenta areas, Sardinia, Italy

16.00-16.30. Coffee break

Chair Continues: Brendan Keely

16.30-16.50 - Valentina Caruso^,, Luca Trombino, Giorgio Caudullo, Valentina Scarpulla, Annalisa Cappella, Emanuela Maderna, Nicoletta Marinoni, Debora Mazzarelli, Emanuela Sguazza^,, Cristina Cattaneo. - Bone tissue conservation in archaeological and contemporary human remains: the role of degradation of organic and mineral phases

17.00-17.20 – Natàlia Égüez, Carolina Mallol, Cheryl Makarewicz, Ruth Blasco, Jordi Rosell, Florent Rivals, Eugène Morin, François Bachellerie, Isabelle Crevecoeur,Hélène Rougier - Micro-characterization of carnivore coprolites: a contribution to the study of Pleistocene anthropogenic sedimentary deposits

17.30-18.10 Presentation and discussion of posters

(Chair continues: Brendan Keely)

17.30 – 17.40 Mario Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, Margarita Orfila Pons, Francisco José Martín Peinado, Oliva Rodríguez Gutiérrez, Enrique García Vargas, Carlos Márquez Moreno, Elena H. Sánchez López, Marcelo Castro López and Paul Goldberg - Gea in front of Chronos: Geoarchaeological Research in Roman Contexts of Andalusia, Spain

17.40-17.50. Carlos Duarte, EnekoIriarte& Pablo Arias - The Final (Asturian) Problem: reviewing the formation of the Mesolithic shell middens of northern Spain using micromorphology and other geoarchaeological approaches (Poster)
17.50-18.00. M. Mercè Bergadà, Tània Polonio and F. Xavier Oms. Cova Colomera (Southeastern Pre-Pyrenees) during the late Early Neolithic: pastoral practices and bat and bird occupation

Excursion

The conference will be followed by an excursion including:

• 
  Observations of “statues of Mont’e Prama” (http://www.comunedicabras.it/vivi-cabras/museo-e-area-archeologica-di-tharros/index.aspx?m=53&did=285 ) at Cabras Museum, followed to site from where Statues were/are excavated, with archaeological, soil and geological guide.
  
• 
  Packed lunch break
  
• 
  Visit to Phoenician-Punic-Roman site of Tharros(see http://www.tharros.info/ViewSites.php?cat=100&lng=it and http://www.sardegnacultura.it/j/v/253?s=21268&v=2&c=2489&c1=2125&t=1)
  

All the best,

DIG2015 Organizing Committee:

Maria Raimonda Usai¹, Andrea Vacca², Sergio Vacca¹, Giovanni De Giudici², Salvatore Madrau³ ,Salvatore Carboni² , Maria Bonaria D’Anna, Giovanni Mastinu¹

(1: Department of Architecture and Design, University of Sassari; 2: Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Cagliari; 3: , Department of Agriculture, University of Sassari)

ABSTRACTS

JOHN B. DALRYMPLE

This year’s Archaeological Soil Micromorphology Workshop is dedicated to Dr John B..Dalrymple, one of the most important soil micromorphologists of his generation and this times, who has recently passed away.

Dr Dalrymple was outstanding as a human being and for his dedication to his students, with whom he pioneered, both theoretically and experimentally, important Pedology and Micromorphology work. His contribution was fundamental to the progress of the disciplines of Pedology, Paleopedology, Soil Micromophology and applications to archaeological interpretations.



He was born in Coventry on 23 November 1930 and, after his secondary schools, was first student for his Bachelor Degree in Geography at the University of Sheffield.

He then did an MSc in Archaeology in the Institute of Archaeology in London, followed by a PhD on the Pedology, Archaeology and Geography in Wye College, Kent. During his PhD he taught first as a Demonstrator and then as a Junior Lecturer.

It was during these years, that he did his pioneering work on the application of soil micromorphology to Archaeology, published in 1958 in the Journal of Soil Science [‘The application of Soil Micromorphology to fossil soils and other deposits from archaeological sites’]. This was the beginning of an entirely new field of studies, and opened the way to today’s archaeological soil micromorphology and geoarchaeological applications.

In 1960 he was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Pedology in the Department of Geography in Oakland, New Zealand. His work here diversified again, extending to his then lifelong treasured multi-scale perspectives going from microscopy to large landscape and soil interpretations with three-dimensional approach. Hence, his research in New Zealand was again of a ground-breaking character, as he developed the ‘Hypothetical Nine Land Surface Model’ (published in 1968), worldwide-famous and important for the understanding of the relationships between slopes and soils. The model’s principle was the recognition

that all natural slopes potentially consist of a convex upper part and a concave lower part, separated by mid-slope variations, and defined for the first time nine ‘units’ where the type and extent of weathering, hydrology and soil formation are all causally related to the characters of the slope ‘unit’ in which they occur.

In 1965 he moved back to the UK, where he joined the University of Reading, Department of Soil Science, where he taught Pedology, Soil Survey and Land Evaluation, Paleopedology (with work with the Working Group on the Origin and Nature of Paleosols) and particularly Soil Micromorphology. With his students he carried out pioneering and innovative research on processes and soil genesis, with both empirical and experimental applications and, also with support of highly qualified technician Karen Gutteridge, developed new methods for thin section preparations and interpretations and established a soil micromorphology lab where many of the then future micromorphology scientists were trained.

John Dalrymple was intolerant of scientific assumptions based on circumscribed concepts that did not fully account for the wholeness and interrelatedness in space between land, environment and soil, and on this basis, he fought with persistence and dignity to develop, maintain and uphold standards of micromorphology and pedology at the levels he believed right.

His students and then research collaborators were many and it is impossible to name them all in this note.

We, your past students, are grateful to you, Dr Dalrymple, from whom we learnt most of what we know in soil science and... a bit more about life.

Maria Raimonda Usai

Characterization of microscopic properties by synchrotron based techniques: an overview and some examples.

Giovanni De Giudici

Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche - Università di Cagliari

Characterization of (solid) geo-materials can be thought as a multi-scale problem whose advances are often due to a development in microscopic techniques. Routine characterization by optical microscopy allows one to recognize size and shape of the grains, crystal phases and texture of the samples. These basic informations are generally limited The advent of electron microscopy and the use of electron microbeam, allowed us to acquire more information on the morphology and chemical composition with micrometric and sub-micrometric resolution. Moreover, innovative manipulations based on digital microfocus techniques such as Focus Ion Beam (FIB) offer us opportunities to prepare oriented thin slices with micrometric precision and, thus, having access to structures, textures and interfaces buried below the surface of the samples. Synchrotron light, generally because of its particularly high brilliance, offers better opportunities to acquire definitive information on grains shape and size, texture, crystal phases, chemistry and coordinative and chemical environment. In this talk, generalities about synchrotron techniques will be presented as well as some example to the characterization of geoarcheological materials. Focus will be on sample manipulation, microXRF, microFTIR, microXRD and microXAS tecnhiques (1, 2). Specific benefits from using synchrotron based techniques will be illustrated with relevant examples.

References

1. 
   Torresday, et al. Coord. Chem. Rev. 249, 1797–1810 (2005)
   
2. 
   De Giudici et al. (2014) Synchrotron Radiation and Environmental Sciences. Synchrotron Radiation Chapter 25. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
   
3. 
   
   

Applications of micro-FTIR in the identification of phosphate minerals in micromorphology samples from archaeological sites

Susan M. Mentzer ^{1, 2} Christopher E. Miller ^{1, 3}

¹ Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany

² Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA

³ Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Germany

Phosphate-induced diagenesis is a taphonomic process that negatively impacts the preservation of archaeological materials, such as ashes, bones and shell. The process is most common in cave and rockshelter settings; however, phosphatic minerals can form under a variety of conditions in sites of all ages. Identification of specific phosphatic minerals using their optical properties in thin section is difficult due to often small crystal sizes and similarity in crystal habits, color in PPL and interference colors in cross-polarized light. In this study, we selected a series of unknown phosphatic minerals visible in thin sections from archaeological sites ranging in age from Middle Stone Age to Neolithic. After documenting their optical properties, we analyzed the minerals using Fourier infrared microspectrometry (micro-FTIR) and compared the resulting spectra to a database of minerals and other archaeological materials. Depending on crystal density, some spectra required further processing to account for the presence on resin. We positively identified a variety of minerals including hydroxyapatite (Ca₁₀(PO₄)₆(OH)₂), leucophosphite (K(Fe)₂(PO₄)₂(OH) · 2 H₂O, taranakite ((K, NH₄)Al₃(PO₄)₃(OH) · 9 H₂O, brushite (CaHPO₄ · 2 H₂O) and whitlockite (Ca₁₈Mg₂H₂(PO₄)₁₄). These mineral identifications were confirmed using analyses of nodules and other materials present in loose sediment samples. Our results suggest that micro-FTIR is a viable technique for the identification of unknown secondary phosphatic minerals in archaeological sediments, and that the integration of this type of analysis with micromorphology will allow us to better reconstruct the formation sequences of the minerals and their impacts on archaeological materials.

Using Fourier-Transform infrared Microspectrometry (micro-FTIR) to assess heat-induced alteration of clays in thin sections from archaeological combustion features: promises and pitfalls

Christopher E. Miller^1,2 Susan M. Mentzer^1,3 Ximena Villagran^1,4 David Friesem^1,5

1 Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Germany; 2 Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Germany; 3 Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA; 4 Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of Sao Paolo, Brazil; 5 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Archaeological combustion features consist of the remnants of burnt fuel (charcoal and ashes) and often exhibit clay-rich substrates or inclusions that have been variably influenced by heating. Previous studies using Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry of loose sediments have demonstrated the applicability of this method for assessing the degree of heating in clays in archaeological sites (e.g., Berna et al. 2007; Forget et al. 2015). Here we present the results of a micro-FTIR study of heat-altered clays in archaeological combustion features from a variety of time periods and geological contexts.

We selected combustion features from an Upper Paleolithic cave in the Caucasus, an Aceramic Neolithic tell in Turkey, a Paleoindian cave in Brazil, and an ethnohistoric village in Greece for the study. Loose samples of unheated clays from the sites themselves, or surrounding areas, were heated in a step-wise experiment, following the protocol developed by Berna et al. (2007). Spectra were obtained on the heated loose samples using potassium-bromide (KBr) pellets and a diamond-crystal Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) attachment. We also indurated the experimental loose samples in resin and obtained spectra using an FTIR microscope, attached to the same bench, with germanium- and diamond-crystal ATRs. We compared these spectra with those obtained using the FTIR microscope from thin sections of archaeological combustion features.

The results from this study demonstrate that micro-FTIR can be used to assess whether clays in thin section have been altered by heat. However, our results also show that one must carefully adjust the measurement protocols depending on the site and the clays which were heated. We therefore recommend that all future studies include site-specific heating experiments to calibrate results. Furthermore, a combination of reflectance, transmittance, and ATR measurements on thin sections provide the appropriate spectral range to identify key peak shifts. For example, sites where kaolinite is the likely dominant clay mineral, diagnostic peak shifts at high wavenumbers are obvious in transmittance spectra. For heat-altered clays derived from volcanic bedrock, many of the key peaks can only be measured using reflectance or ATR objectives. Furthermore, these overlap with those specific to the indurating resin, or fall outside of the spectral range of the instrument. Overlap with resin peaks requires subtraction corrections to the spectra, making the measurement of peak-height ratios difficult. Therefore, we only recommend using micro-FTIR to determine if a clay has been altered, and not to determine specific degree ranges of heating. Despite some of these setbacks, we believe that micro-FTIR measurements of heated clays in thin section provides valuable microcontextual information that can be used to augment other studies of combustion features.

References

Berna, F., Behar, A., Shahack-Gross, R., Berg, J., Boaretto, E., Gilboa, A., ... & Weiner, S. (2007). Sediments exposed to high temperatures: reconstructing pyrotechnological processes in Late Bronze and Iron Age Strata at Tel Dor (Israel). Journal of Archaeological Science, 34, 358-373.

Forget, M. C., Regev, L., Friesem, D. E., & Shahack-Gross, R. (2015). Physical and mineralogical properties of experimentally heated chaff-tempered mud bricks: Implications for reconstruction of environmental factors influencing the appearance of mud bricks in archaeological conflagration events. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2, 80-93.