浙江余姚田螺山遗址古人类活动的环境背景分析——植硅体、硅藻等化石证据

长江中下游丰富的新石器时代文化遗址,为研究该地区新石器时期气候环境变化、古人类活动和文化演化等提供了丰富的材料。浙江余姚田螺山遗址是河姆渡早期文化保存比较完整的一处新石器时代遗址。文章通过对田螺山遗址剖面植硅体、硅藻和炭屑等的分析,探讨了田螺山遗址河姆渡文化早期的原始农业和古人类活动的文化环境背景。7000～6600cal.aB.P.期间,植硅体和炭屑含量较低,淡水-半咸水硅藻丰富,推测为淡水或泻湖沉积环境,受海水影响较小;  从6600cal.aB.P.开始,水稻植硅体和炭屑含量增加说明田螺山先人已经开始大量种植水稻;  晚期（约6000cal.aB.P.后）海绵骨针和硅藻海水种含量的增长说明该时期田螺山地区明显受到海水影响。研究结果表明,河姆渡文化早期,田螺山地区就已经开始水稻栽培,原始农业形态基本是以稻作农业为主;  田螺山遗址河姆渡文化之前和之后都可能存在相对海面较高或受海水影响的时期,其与河姆渡文化在田螺山地区兴起与消失有着一定的关系。     

海水环境下巴氏芽孢杆菌驯化及钙质砂固化效果研究

为了提升微生物诱导碳酸盐沉淀(MICP)技术在海洋环境下对钙质砂的加固效果,在以往研究的基础上,设计进行了人工海水环境下巴氏芽孢杆菌多梯度人工驯化培养试验,并结合MICP固化钙质砂柱的力学试验和微细观结构分析,对巴氏芽孢杆菌的驯化效果进行了综合评价。结果表明:(1)海水环境下五梯度驯化后细菌的菌液浓度可达到淡水环境的97%以上,其与胶结液作用后碳酸盐的生成量较淡水环境下有一定幅度提高;(2)驯化后的巴氏芽孢杆菌具有很好的温度适应能力,在10～30℃温度下均有较好的MICP性能;(3)海水环境下加固的钙质砂柱无论是碳酸盐生成量还是无侧限抗压强度均较未驯化前高,尤其是五梯度驯化后的细菌,驯化后的细菌菌体变小,在海水环境生成的碳酸盐(碳酸钙和碳酸镁)晶体更小,更加致密,能更好地填充钙质砂颗粒的孔隙并胶结相邻的钙质砂颗粒,具有更优异的MICP性能。相关研究思路和方法可为MICP技术在海洋环境钙质砂地基加固方面的研究与应用提供参考。     

GEOGRAPHY IN NIGERIA

Cultural geographers often ascribe early animal domestications to the spiritual propitiation practices of ancient peoples, an interpretation that is not widely shared. This paper evaluates the sacrifice theory against Near Eastern archaeological data and refutes the idea that ritual sacrifice could have induced the earliest animal domestications of the Near East. The earliest domestications were the outcome of essentially ecological and economic processes which later gave rise to the sacrificial practices referred to by cultural geographers.     

The Hegemony of Global Politics: News Coverage of Climate Change in a Small Country

Researching media coverage of climate change may shed light on the different configurations of global and domestic factors affecting journalism and politics. This article analyzes climate change coverage in Portugal from 2007 to 2014 in comparison with 14 other countries. It shows that the Portuguese press tends to reproduce the global political agenda on climate change, mainly focusing on international events associated with global political decision-making processes, instead of providing a domesticated coverage, as observed in other countries. National and local levels of action are thus obscured. The interplay between global and domestic factors—including characteristics of Portugal’s press and politics, such as national political leaders’ lack of mobilization and communication on climate change, media’s deference to powerful sources, and reliance on international news feeds—creates the conditions for global politics to play an hegemonic role in media representations, which is likely to influence public engagement with climate change.     

Stable isotopic analysis on ancient human bones in Jiahu site

Palaeodietary analysis is one of important topics in bioarchaeology field and has been paid great at- tention to by Chinese archaeometrists recently. Ancient human bones in Jiahu Site were analyzed by means of stable isotopes of C, N and O. 13 human bones were excluded from 28 bones for dietary re- construction due to their unusual collagen contents, C and N contents, and C/N atomic ratios espe- cially. δ 13C (-20.37±0.53‰) in collagen of remaining samples showed that C3 food were consumed mainly, which is consistent of the archaeological findings that rice was the staple in Jiahu. According to the difference of δ 15N and δ 13C values in bone collagen, the samples can be classified into four clusters. The changes of δ 15N values in bone collagen and δ 13C values in hydroxylapatite through whole cultural phases indicated the transition from hunting to gathering and fishing to rice agriculture and animal domestication ultimately. Meanwhile, the δ 18O change in hydroxylapatite showed that pa- laeoclimate was relatively constant during Jiahu culture.     

Earliest Cucurbita from the Great Lakes, Northern USA

Directly dated Cucurbita from archaeological sites near Lake Huron expand the range and human usage of adventive, cultivated wild gourds or squash into the Great Lakes region, USA, by 4000 ¹⁴C yr BP. The data also show that domesticated C. pepo squash was cultivated there by 3000 ¹⁴C yr BP. Although milder Hypsithermal climate may have been a contributing factor, squash and gourds expanded northward during the mid-Holocene mainly by human agency and may be the first human-introduced adventive plant in temperate North America. Even after 3000 ¹⁴C yr BP, when domesticated squash generally replaced wild varieties at northern sites, squash stands were probably informally managed rather than intensively cultivated.