| Abstract: | Environmental magnetic techniques provide significant potential for characterizing sediments and soils and inferring their sources. This article discusses the application of environmental magnetic techniques in the study of an evolving landscape in the Shangqiu area, China, an archaeologically important region for investigating the origin of Shang civilization. Two magnetic parameters—anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM) and low-field magnetic susceptibility (χ)—are employed to discriminate the pre-Neolithic paleosol from the historic alluvium. In order to quantitatively interpret magnetic measurements, ARM versus χ plots are utilized with rigorous statistical analyses including group comparison and discriminant classification. With the ARM/χ classification model defined by the pre-Neolithic paleosol and historic alluvium, the sediment sources of three anthropogenic deposits (A-1, A-2, and A-3 from oldest to youngest) are addressed. Magnetic data clearly show that A-1 and A-3 are closely associated with the pre-Neolithic paleosol and historic alluvium, respectively. Cultural mixing processes might be partially responsible for the formation of A-2. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |
