A multi‐method approach to dating the burial and skeleton of Kiacatoo Man,New South Wales,Australia

Kiacatoo Man, a large, rugged Aboriginal adult buried in the Lachlan riverine plains of southeastern Australia, was discovered in 2011. Laser‐ablation uranium series analysis on bone yielded a minimum age for the burial of 27.4 ± 0.4 ka (2σ). Single‐grain, optically stimulated luminescence ages on quartz sediment in which the grave had been dug gave a weighted mean age of 26.4 ± 1.5 ka (1σ). Luminescence samples from the grave infill and from sediment beneath the grave exhibit overdispersed dose distributions consistent with bioturbation or other disturbance, which has obscured the burial signal. The overlap between the minimum (U‐series) and maximum (luminescence) ages places the burial between 27.0 and 29.4 ka (2σ). Luminescence ages obtained from the channel belt of between 28 ± 2 and 25 ± 3 ka indicate that fluvial sedimentation was occurring before the Last Glacial Maximum, which is consistent with the broader geomorphic setting. Together, these results are internally and regionally consistent, and indicate that Kiacatoo Man was one of the more ancient individuals so far identified in Australia. His remains are important to our understanding of patterns of biological variation and other processes that have shaped people in the Murray‐Darling Basin through time. Copyright © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Memorial landscapes: analytic questions and metaphors

Over the past two decades, geographers have probed the intersection of collective memory and urban space. Their sustained interest in the subject reflects an understanding of the social condition of commemoration and the important role that space plays in the process and politics of collective memory. Along with other critical social scientists, geographers envision these public symbols as part of larger cultural landscapes that reflect and legitimate the normative social order. A review of the extant literature indicates that geographers scrutinize memorial landscapes through three conceptual lenses that may be understood via the metaphors of ‘text,’ ‘arena,’ and ‘performance.’ These metaphors are in turn mobilized through a series of analytic questions that serve to identify the interests served and denied by landscape ‘texts,’ the ‘arenas’ in which they are produced, and the ways in which they are enacted via ‘performance.’ This article’s synopsis of the subfield’s predominant metaphors and its attendant questions contributes to the ongoing cultural geographic project of articulating and implementing methods for interpreting landscapes as open-ended symbolic systems.

Imaging of Buried Archaeological Materials: The Reflection Properties of Archaeological Wood

Effective marine archaeological site management demands detailed information on not only the spatial distribution of artefacts but also the degradation state of the materials present. Although sonar methods have frequently been used in an attempt to detect buried wooden shipwrecks they are currently unable to indicate their degradation state. To assess the sensitivity of acoustic measurements to changes in the degradation state of such material, and hence the potential for sonars to quantify degradation, laboratory measurements of compressional wave velocity, as well as bulk density for oak and pine samples, in varying states of decay, were undertaken. These data enabled the calculation of theoretical reflection coefficients for such materials buried in various marine sediments. As wood degrades, the reflection coefficients become more negative, resulting in the hypothesis that the more degraded wood becomes, the easier it should be to detect. Typical reflection coefficients of the order of −0.43 and −0.52 for the most degraded oak and pine samples in sand are predicted. Conversely, for wood exposed to seawater the predicted reflection coefficients are large and positive for undegraded material (0.35 for oak, 0.18 for pine) and decrease to zero or slightly below for the most degraded samples. This indicates that exposed timbers, when heavily degraded, can be acoustically transparent and so undetectable by acoustic methods. Corroboration of these experimental results was provided through comparison with high resolution seismic reflection data that has been acquired over two shipwrecks.     

Meadow fragmentation and reproductive output of the SE Asian seagrass Enhalus acoroides

Flower and fruit production of the abundant, tall, long-lived, dioecious, surface-pollinating seagrass species Enhalus acoroides (L.) Royle were estimated at seven sites in the reef flats off Bolinao (NW Luzon, The Philippines) featuring different fragmentation of the seagrass meadows. Fragmentation of the seagrass meadow was quantified as cover of E. acoroides and all seagrass species present in 20×20 m plots. E. acoroides and overall seagrass cover were correlated positively. The proportion of female flowers of E. acoroides that developed a fruit increased sharply as overall seagrass cover was around 50%. Apparent sex ratio bore no relationship with overall seagrass cover. This threshold-type of relationship suggests that fragmentation of seagrass meadows can have a major effect on the reproductive output of this species. A possible mechanism underlying these results would be a non-linear increase of the efficiency of trapping the surface-dispersed pollen with increasing seagrass canopy density. This provides the first evidence based on real data that fragmentation can affect the population dynamics of seagrass species.     

史前连续文化聚落的决策树分类挖掘研究——以郑州-洛阳地区为例

利用C4.5决策树分类算法和GIS组件Super Map Objects,开发实现了基于连续文化序列的空间数据挖掘系统,运用此系统对郑州-洛阳地区史前四个连续文化时期的聚落进行了数据挖掘,提取了聚落遗址面积的分类规则,并根据这些分类规则和聚落的空间分布情况对四个文化时期的I级聚落进行对比分析,得出了I级聚落的空间分布特点,即I级聚落中的一些特大面积的聚落朝着中心聚落的方向发展。     

Pumping decisions for sustainable development of groundwater resources in areas of grassland degradation: a case study in Lanqi Banner, Inner Mongolia, China

The best planting alternatives for satisfying high water use demands of forage and fodder crops in a region of Inner Mongolia, China, were determined by a multiobjective distributed-parameter groundwater management model. These alternatives took account of different cropping patterns and pumping decisions associated with both temporal and spatial aspects of water allocation. The model was developed for phreatic, homogenous, and isotropic aquifers using the response matrix technique of quadratic programming theory and, in this case, using the alternative direction implicit (ADI) scheme. Model solutions using effective rainfall with a probability of 50%, show that average water table drawdown in the planning period (2006–2017) is 0.22 m and the groundwater fluctuation in each pumping well is very low. In order to evaluate the pumping decisions under an effective rainfall with a probability of 75%, a sensitive analysis was also conducted. Analysis shows that it is useful to apply the results from the proposed model to control the landscape degradation due to overgrazing and overpumping activities.     

近20年来中国旧石器考古学的进展与思考

本文记述近20年来中国旧石器考古学研究的主要成果,着重论述早期人类扩散的速度和中国旧石器工业的基本框架:北、南方各存在一个主工业,并存若干区域工业;同时对试验考古研究以及东西文化比较研究等的现状和问题提出孔见。     

县域农业生态景观规划与设计——以北京市密云县为例

景观生态学属宏观尺度生态空间研究范畴 ,其理论核心集中表现为空间异质性和生态整体性。景观生态规划与设计是以景观生态学原理为指导 ,进行景观尺度地域生态规划 ,并提出相应的规划与设计方案。该文以景观生态规划的设计原则与方法为指导 ,进行密云县农业生态景观规划与设计 ,最终目的是设计一个可持续发展的县域农业生态景观体系     

基于RS与GIS的干旱区绿洲景观格局变化研究——以金塔绿洲为例

景观生态学是宏观生态研究的一个新领域。景观格局变化研究,是目前景观生态学的研究热点。利用遥感的手段获取试验区1990和2000年景观格局的基础数据,并利用GIS做分析的工具,计算出6个指标值,采用格网化的方法,将研究区域的景观斑块转化成5m×5m的格网,进行空间分析,计算得出了景观斑块的转移矩阵,为景观格局在空间上的变化分析打下基础。分析显示:①多样性、均匀性、优势度3个指标数值上有很大的相关性,只需考虑多样性;②绿洲景观格局的变化与水资源的变化密切相关;③绿洲有沙漠化的威胁;④城镇居民点用地扩展迅速,主要在未利用土地上发展,金塔绿洲内城镇居民区有城市化的趋势;⑤城镇居民点破碎化指标值未能真正体现其景观特性,当不考虑少数几个大的斑块时,能够得到较为理想的结果。     

长江三角洲长江以北地区全新世以来人地关系的环境考古研究

通过长江三角洲长江以北地区高邮龙虬庄和海安青墩两个新石器时代考古遗址剖面粒度、磁化率、孢粉以及年代学测定，较为全面地分析了该区全新世以来生态环境变化与人类文明兴衰的相互关系，研究结果表明：在有人类活动以前，该区距离海洋较远，但受海面变化影响强烈。此后，气候向暖湿方向发展，7000—6000间的大西洋温暖湿润气候以及3700aB．P．左右期间，该区气候适宜，人类文明在这样的适宜气侯条件下得到长足发展。值得注意的是，海安青墩遗址剖面中出现厚达1m多的自然沉积地层，粒度分析以及孢粉分析表明，这一自然沉积地层是4000aB．P．以来的海侵事件所致，正是这次海侵事件，使研究区人类文明得以衰落。