A dating intercomparison study on Late Stone Age coastal midden deposits,South Africa

The southern and western coastlines of South Africa have an extensive archaeological record with many sites associated with widespread eolian deposits. While much of this rich archaeological record is based on cave sites, evidence of Late Stone Age occupation is additionally preserved in the form of open‐site shell middens. We present here a comparative study of the application of amino acid racemization (AAR), optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), and radiocarbon analyses to three Late Stone Age (LSA) midden sites found within dunes on the southern coastline of South Africa. Preliminary geochronological analyses suggest that middens offer opportunity to fill in gaps in what is still a fragmentary archaeological record. Results show OSL and radiocarbon ages in good agreement, illustrating the potential to date not only the middens but also the surrounding dunes that constituted the dwelling sites. AAR results show increasing ratios with age and also that the application of paired shell and “whole rock” AAR can provide insights into the degree of biogenic sediment recycling at buried midden sites. However, the work also highlights that caution is required when OSL sampling sediment associated with middens which may have undergone human disturbance and that further work is required to improve the regional marine reservoir correction for radiocarbon dating in this part of South Africa. The study also illustrates that AAR will only provide useful data provided that middens have been sufficiently deeply buried to overcome fluctuations in environmental variables that affect the racemization rate and that inter‐genus comparisons should be avoided. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A strange symbiosis: Seismic ray theory and Saturday touch football — Donald V. Helmberger as a graduate advisor

At the end of December of 1978 I was sitting in the office of Caltech Professor Don Helmberger,he was peering out his window towards the San Gabriel Mountains,s...     

The Palaeoproterozoic Kristineberg VMS deposit, Skellefte district, northern Sweden. Part II: chemostratigraphy and alteration

The Kristineberg massive sulfide deposit is hosted by metamorphosed volcanic and subvolcanic rocks of the Palaeoproterozoic Skellefte Group. The deposit consists of: (1) two main massive sulfide horizons, the A-ores and B-ores, which dip steeply southwards and are separated by 100–150 m; and (2) the Einarsson Zone, a complex interval of Cu–Au-rich ‘stockwork‘ sulfides and small massive sulfide lenses in altered and deformed rocks near the 1,000 m level. The Einarsson Zone occurs some 20–100 m south of the B-ores. There are no definite younging indicators in the mine sequence. In many areas of the mine, the original host rocks are impossible to identify petrographically due to the abundance of secondary minerals such as quartz, chlorite, muscovite, cordierite, andalusite, phlogopite, pyrite and talc, combined with variably schistose fabrics. Application of immobile-element methods to 600 recent whole-rock chemical analyses has, however, allowed the original rock types to be identified and correlated. Rhyolite X lies immediately north of the A-ore, while andesitic to dacitic to rhyodacitic rocks make up the 100–150 m interval between the A-ore and B-ore, and massive rhyolite A lies immediately south of the B-ore. The felsic rocks are mostly of calc-alkaline affinity, excluding rhyolite X, which is transitional. The mine porphyry, which lies north of the A-ore and forms the marginal phase of the synvolcanic Viterliden Intrusive Complex, is compositionally similar to dacite and rhyodacite. Mass changes calculated for all rock types indicate that most of the volcanic rocks in the mine area are strongly depleted in Na and Ca, and have gained variable amounts of Mg and Fe, whereas Si changes range from negative to positive. Gains in Fe and changes in Si are largest within 5–10 m of the massive sulfide lenses. Cordierite-bearing schists of andesitic to felsic compositions that lie between massive sulfide lenses A and B are not as altered. The Einarsson Zone commonly shows large gains in Fe and Mg, while Si shows large gains to large losses. Immobile-element ratios indicate that very different secondary assemblages in the mine, e.g. andalusite–quartz–muscovite and cordierite–chlorite–talc, can be produced from the same precursor volcanic unit, e.g., rhyolite. Conversely, the same secondary mineral assemblage can be produced from different rocks, e.g. weakly altered andesite and strongly altered rhyolite. The common presence of cordierite + andalusite in the mine area, without anthophyllite, is unusual in the alteration systems of volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposits, and is proposed to have formed by the metamorphic reaction of the synvolcanic alteration minerals kaolinite and chlorite to produce cordierite. Where kaolinite was in excess of chlorite, andalusite was also formed. We propose that highly acidic alteration fluids locally produced high-Al minerals such as kaolinite that either overprinted, or occurred in place of, a more typical sericite–chlorite–quartz alteration assemblage that otherwise formed near the massive sulfide lenses. Application of lithogeochemical methods to the altered, deformed and metamorphosed Kristineberg rocks has identified specific volcanic contacts with massive sulfide potential, and quantified the effects of synvolcanic hydrothermal alteration. Such an approach can increase the effectiveness of mineral exploration in metamorphosed terrains.     

Middle Pleistocene environments,landscapes and tephrostratigraphy of the Armenian Highlands: evidence from Bird Farm 1, Hrazdan Valley

The significance of the southern Caucasus in understanding Pleistocene hominin expansions is well established. However, the palaeoenvironments in which Palaeolithic occupation of the region took place are presently poorly defined. The Hrazdan river valley, Armenian Highlands, contains a rich Palaeolithic record alongside Middle Pleistocene volcanic, fluvial and lacustrine strata, and thus offer exciting potential for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. We present the first results of sedimentological, geochemical, tephrostratigraphical and biological (diatoms) study of the sequence of Bird Farm 1, located in the central part of the valley. These data show six phases of landscape development during the interval 440–200 ka. The sequence represents the first quantitative Pleistocene diatom record from the Armenian Highlands and the southern Caucasus, and indicates the persistence of a deep, stratified lacustrine system, with evidence for changing lake productivity that is tentatively linked to climate. Furthermore, major element chemical characterization of visible and crypto-tephra horizons in the sequence enables the first stages of the development of a regional tephrostratigraphy. Together, the evidence from Bird Farm 1 demonstrates the importance of lacustrine archives in the region for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and highlights the potential for linkages between archives on both a local and regional scale.