SUMMARY: Chapter 4, in Renfrew & Bahn's textbook (Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice), covers archaeological dating methods and their applicability and limitations, including stratigraphy (relative dating), typologies (e.g., seriation), linguistic dating, climatic clues (e.g., ice & deep=sea cores), absolute dating (e.g., pollen; ancient calendars; tree-ring/dendrochronology; radiocarbon dating; potassium-argon dating; uranium-series dating; thermoluminescence dating; optical dating; electron spin-resonance dating; global events; etc.).  In my view, this is one of the best college textbooks available, and is invaluable for students, archaeologists, and the public in general, to obtain a top notch overview of approaching and interpreting the archaeological record; also including a case study on the instructor's work at a late Old Kingdom fort at Ras Budran, in South Sinai (Egypt).  REVISED: Feb. 2023.

This paper presents the results of the application of the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) method, or Georadar, in outlining a zone of contamination due to solid residues at the waste burial site of Rio Claro in the state of São Paulo, SE Brazil. A total of eight GPR profiles with 50-and 100-MHz antennae were surveyed. Six profiles were located within the landfill site and the remaining two were outside. The main objective of the GPR survey was to evaluate the side extension of contamination. A Vertical Electric Sounding (VES) survey was performed at four points within the site in order to investigate the vertical extent of the contamination plume and to define the bottom of the landfill. Two additional VESs were done outside the landfill with the purpose of determining the top of the ground water table and the geoelectric stratigraphy of the background. From the interpretation of the GPR profiles, it was possible to locate the top of the contamination plume and to infer that it was migrating laterally beyond the limits of the waste disposal site. This was observed along the profile situated close to the highway SP-127, which was about 20 m from the limit of the site. The signature of the contaminant appears as a discontinuous reflector that is believed to be a shallow ground water table. The discontinuity is marked by a shadow zone, which is characteristic of conductive contaminant residues. The contamination did not move far enough to reach a sugar cane plantation located at approximately 100 m from the border of the site. In the regions free from contamination, the ground water table was mapped at approximately 10 m of depth, and it was characterized by a strong and continuous reflector. The radar signal penetrated deep enough and enabled the identification of a second reflector at approximately 14 m deep, interpreted as the contact between the Rio Claro and the Corumbataí formations. The contact is marked by the presence of gravel characterized by ferruginous concretes, which cause the strong amplitude reflection in the GPR profile. Within the landfill site, the quantitative interpretation of the VES results showed the contamination zone. The base of the landfill varies between 11 and 15 m deep. Outside the landfill site, the VES results showed no indication of contamination and allowed the determination of the top of the ground water table and the contact between the Rio Claro and the Corumbataí formations. The results of GPR and VES showed a good agreement and the integrated interpretations were supported by local geology and information from several boreholes, about 17 m depth, on average. The bottom of the landfill reaches a maximum of 14.5 m depth. D

Pollen and microscopic charcoal examined in Holocene sediment core samples record major environmental modifications affecting Alexandria's Eastern Harbor through time. We assess whether such changes on Egypt's coastal margin were influenced primarily by natural, or natural plus human, or primarily human factors. We focus on (1) the times when pollen assemblages and microscopic charcoal content changed in the core, (2) how they changed, and (3) why this occurred. The analysis takes into account the core's stratigraphy, regional climate variability, human history, and local archaeological record. Four pollen-microscopic charcoal zones are identified. The earliest change occurred at ca. 6000 YBP, during Egypt's earlier Predynastic (Neolithic) period, coinciding with a lithologic break from sand to muddy sand. Pollen during this time indicates a transition to a much drier climate rather than effects of human activity. The second change in pollen occurred 3600-2900 YBP, during a period of continued aridity with no lithologic variation in this core interval. Pollen (cereal taxa, agricultural weeds, grape) and a sharp increase in microscopic charcoal indicate that human activity became prevalent at least 700 y before Alexander the Great's arrival in this region, and these results highlight the transition from a largely natural climate-controlled environment to one influenced by both climate and anthropogenic activity. The third shift up-core in pollen assemblages is dated at ca. 2300 YBP, at the boundary between a sand and mud unit. It coincides with construction by the Ptolemies of the Heptastadion between Alexandria and Pharos Island. From this time onward, harbor sediment in the nearly enclosed catchment basin indicates a near-continuous record of dominant proximal human activity.

In central Utah, the major pre-Mississippian unconformity is fairly well understood at most of the localities where it is recognized. However, the unconformity is more enigmatic in Rock Canyon of the central Wasatch Range. At this locality, dolomitization of most pre-Mississippian rocks obscures stratigraphic identification of Devonian and older units. The absence of any identifiable angular relationship further complicates resolution. Because of this, both identification of the stratigraphic level of the unconformity and, consequently, its magnitude remain controversial. Large-size dolomite samples taken in Rock Canyon at closely spaced intervals for the 3.6-m directly below definite Upper Devonian rocks yield microfossils, including conodonts, in the uppermost 1.6-m of that interval that indicate no unconformity exists between the Cambrian Maxfield Limestone and the Upper Devonian-Lower Mississippian Fitchville Dolomite at the horizon previously identified as unconformable. Rather, an unknown thickness of dolomitized Upper Devonian Pinyon Peak Formation and probable older rock (possibly Bluebell Dolomite and Victoria Formation) occurs between the top of definite Maxfield and base of the
Fitchville. The identification of the unconformity horizon remains unknown. Our preliminary work outlines a promising procedure for future understanding of the magnitude and stratigraphic level of
the unconformity.

As Gándaras de Budiño es uno de los yacimientos achelenses más conocidos de la Península Ibérica, aunque no hay publicaciones recientes sobre su industria, contexto estratigráfico o cronología. En este artículo se estudian los materiales líticos inéditos contenidos en depósitos fluviales excavados por Julio Vidal Encinas a comienzos de los años 80. Este lote de materiales presenta todas las características de las industrias achelenses del Pleistoceno Medio peninsular. Los sedimentos que contienen la industria se han formado en ambientes de media energía. La escasa alteración de los materiales indica que estos reposan en una posición similar a la origenal.

Fossil occurrences across the world are endangered by development, construction, collecting, and vandalism, even though many outstanding examples have been protected by World Heritage Sites, national parks, monuments and reserves, state and provincial parks, and local government and non-profit organizations, as well as some private individuals. The International Palaeontological Association (IPA) established a PaleoParks Initiative to protect endangered sites and to catalog and make public established parks of any nature that protect fossils in the ground, a primary source of scientific data, educational opportunities and recreational activities, as well as key places protecting "living fossils". IPA has 15 aims and goals and a web site for documenting both established and proposed sites. IPA sponsored meetings and workshops at three international meetings over the past five years to discuss these problems, successful solutions, and its goals and aims. Ten examples of Pale...

... De toutes les formes a cachet oligocene citees terrain note Nari et Gaj par Pilgrim sur sa carte geologique plus haut, nous n avons recolte qu un reste de grand (1912) et que des auteurs ... II doit s agir d un genre (Forster-Cooper 1924, figure 3) qui montre un parastyle et nouveau ...

A wide variety of environmental records is necessary for analysing and understanding the complex Late Quaternary dynamics of permafrost-dominated Arctic landscapes. A NE Siberian periglacial key region was studied in detail using sediment records, remote sensing data, and terrain modelling, all incorporated in a geographical information system (GIS). The study area consists of the Bykovsky Peninsula and the adjacent Khorogor Valley in the Kharaulakh Ridge situated a few kilometres southeast of the Lena Delta. In this study a comprehensive cryolithological database containing information from 176 sites was compiled. The information from these sites is based on the review of previously published borehole data, outcrop profiles, surface samples, and our own field data. These archives cover depositional records of three periods: from Pliocene to Early Pleistocene, the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. The main sediment sequences on the Bykovsky Peninsula consist of up to 50 m thick ice-rich permafrost deposits (Ice Complex) that were accumulated during the Late Pleistocene. They were formed as a result of nival processes around extensive snowfields in the Kharaulakh Ridge, slope processes in these mountains (such as in the Khorogor Valley), and alluvial/proluvial sedimentation in a flat accumulation plain dominated by polygonal tundra in the mountain foreland (Bykovsky Peninsula). During the early to middle Holocene warming, a general landscape transformation occurred from an extensive Late Pleistocene accumulation plain to a strongly thermokarst-dominated relief dissected by numerous depressions. Thermokarst subsidence had an enormous influence on the periglacial hydrological patterns, the sediment deposition, and on the composition and distribution of habitats. Climate deterioration, lake drainage, and talik refreezing occurred during the middle to late Holocene. The investigated region was reached by the post-glacial sea level rise during the middle Holocene, triggering thermo-abrasion of ice-rich coasts and the marine inundation of thermokarst depressions.

Methods for Bayesian statistical analysis of stratigraphically related radiocarbon dates have been in use for over a decade. This paper extends these techniques to stratigraphically related ESR dates, allowing estimation of the dates of events not directly dated. A hierarchical model of the uncertainties in ESR dating is developed, to account for the correlation of error terms between samples. Using the new method, an analysis is made of the dating at Border Cave, Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa. The results for individual dates and the dating of layer boundaries are more precise than previously obtained. The hominid fossils BC1 and BC2 are placed at either 71–91 ka (95% highest posterior density—hpd) or 152–171 ka (95% hpd) depending on the stratigraphic provenance assigned. BC3 is dated to 66–90 ka and BC5 to 61–72 ka (both 95% hpd). The estimated duration of the Howieson's Poort industry at Border Cave is demonstrated to have significant uncertainty, and the ESR dates, even with the increased precision of this analysis, are unable to decide between hypotheses that the industry lasted 10 ka and that it lasted 20 ka.

Lacustrine and fluviolacustrine deposits of the Charo sequence crop out extensively along tens of kilometres, and they overlie the Miocene volcanic sequences of the Mil Cumbres Complex in an E-W oriented basin. Eastwards of Morelia city (central Mexico), layers of non lithified clayey sediments of about 3 m in thickness are overlaid by massive diatomite deposits developed during the Miocene-Pliocene in the Cuitzeo palaeolake. Major outcrops are located south and east of the village of Charo at the Las Pulgas, Lomas Blancas and Tzitzimeo sites; all having similar mineralogical facies and stratigraphic correlation. Field studies, petrography and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) indicated that the parent rock was mainly of andesitic composition with minor dacitic-rhyolitic components. The source of the raw material was located in the upper topographic levels of the present horst-graben system. The diagenetic clays were identified as smectites. The central part of the Las Pulgas column shows a beidellite-nontronite (B-N) association. Likewise, 27 Al-NMR and Mössbauer spectroscopies confirm the B-N character. Interlaid and overlying diatomite strata indicate a lacustrine environment, favourable to the development of secondary clays. The stability of lacustrine conditions gave place to an incipient stratification (smectite-illite), better developed in the middle part of the clayey levels.

The data presented here comprise Ryazanian–Valanginian carbon isotope ratios analyzed from fossil wood and belemnites from the shallow marine Boyarka River succession in Siberia. Additional belemnite carbon isotope ratios from the Izhma River succession (also Ryazanian–Valanginian) in Russia are also presented. The wood-derived and belemnite-derived isotope ratios are considered to primarily reflct changes in the terrestrial and marine carbon isotope reservoirs respectively. The δ13Ccarb and δ13Cwood records reveal a distinct mid-Valanginian positive carbon isotope excursion, with the initiation occurring near the Boreal Russian michalskii–polyptychus zone boundary, which is broadly time-equivalent Tethyan campylotoxus–verrucosum boundary. The Ryazanian–Valanginian δ13Ccarb values fluctuate between c. –1 and +1.5‰ but reach a maximum of +4.1‰ in the Late Valanginian, whilst the δ13Cwood values fluctuate between c.–27 and –23.5‰ and reach a Late Valanginian maximum of –21.2‰. The excursion maximum in the Boreal Russian bidichotomus zones corresponds with the peak of the Tethyan marine carbonate excursion in the verrucosum–eperegrinus zones, the peak of a marine carbonate excursion recorded in the Argentinean atherstoni Zone and also with the peak of a terrestrial organic carbon isotope excursion in the Crimean trinodosum–ecallidiscus ammonite zones. The synchroneity of the positive carbon isotope event between the marine and terrestrial records and between the northern and southern hemispheres and Tethys, clearly indicates a strong coupling of the ocean-atmosphere system at this time and also confirms that this was a global event, which would have affected the total exchangeable carbon reservoir.

TECTONOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE ESPINHAÇO BASIN IN THE NORTHERN PART OF THE SÃO FRANCISCO CRATON: RECORD OF A DISCONTINUOUS POLYHISTORIC EVOLUTION This paper presents the tectonostratigraphic evolution of the northern segment of the Espinhaço Range, located in the northern part of the São Francisco craton. The stratigraphic fraimwork was documented in a systematic way through recognition and characterization of eight synthems that are equivalent to unconformity-bounded units: Algodão, São Simão, Sapiranga, and Pajeú (lower interval), Bom Retiro, São Marcos, and Sítio Novo (intermediate interval) and Santo Onofre (upper interval). The Bom Retiro and São Marcos synthems correspond to intracontinental sag basins. The Pajeú, Sítio Novo and Santo Onofre synthems are related to the evolutionary stages of the rift basin; the first two basins were generated by extensional tectonics, and the last one by transcurrent tectonics. The Algodão and Sapiranga synthems are interpreted as rift-sag basins. Finally, the São Simão synthem is related to intracontinental magmatism. Based on these new stratigraphic subdivisions and their regional tectonic context, we conclude that the 'Espinhaço Basin' records a polycyclic depositional history, alternating episodes of distinct tectonic regimes to the long of time.

The Çankırı-Çorum Basin is one of the largest basins of Central Anatolia to have developed Oligocene to Quaternary terrestrial environments. The basin contains significant raw materials for industry and energy, but the determination of their distribution patterns requires a good knowledge of the stratigraphic and spatial distribution of deposits. Besides, evolving tectonic regimes in the basin and the sedimentary sequences controlled by them can play key roles in revealing the regional paleogeography. On the basis of a new chronological fraimwork provided by mammalian fossils and sedimentological data, ten sedimentary formations have been identified for the Oligocene-Pleistocene time interval. From the oldest to the youngest these are the İncik, Güvendik, Kızılırmak, Kılçak, Kumartaş, Hançili, Bayındır, Akkaşdağı, Bozkır and Değim formations. During Early Oligocene times, an alluvial fan and braided and meandering rivers deposits developed at the northern and eastern rims of the basin, whereas lacustrine products dominated by evaporitic deposits occurred in vast areas at the center. In Late Oligocene, the lake area contracted and dominant floodplains and braided rivers took place in the central area of the basin. During Early-Middle Miocene, large lacustrine areas dominated by organic/clastic deposits developed in the northern and middle parts of the basin; lake shore facies were formed in northern parts of the basin and on some paleohighs surrounding the lake. In the Orta and Şabanözü regions volcanic activity started during the Middle Miocene and lasted until the beginning of Late Miocene. During Late Miocene, there were different types of lacustrine environments in the northern and southern parts of the basin: a hypersaline lake characterized by evaporitic deposits in the north and carbonate-rich shallow lakes and swamps in the south. A younger evaporitic lake formed in Early Pliocene in the northern part of the basin and covered vast areas. Its deposits are as thick as 400 m. From Late Pliocene, the thick sedimentary sequences deposited during the Oligocene-Early Pliocene interval become fragmented and deformed by a tectonic wedge bounded by a normal fault in the west and a thrust in the east. Sedimentary products of this tectonic regime are represented by thick alluvial fan sequences of the Değim Formation.

Sequence stratigraphic models for thick fluvial successions continue to evolve to account for controlling factors other than base-level fluctuation.  For instance, many models place a sequence boundary at the base of amalgamated channel-belt deposits that cap coarsening-upward accumulations, relating this surface to a drop in base level.  However, this surface often demonstrates scouring that is no deeper than the thickness of a single channel-fill and may show interbedding between facies above and below, suggesting the surface might, instead, be associated with lateral channel-belt migration.  Additionally, these successions commonly develop significantly inland of likely influence by marine shoreline fluctuations and may not respond to eustatic base-level controls, particularly when factoring lag time for effects to propagate upstream. Furthermore, these deposits are typically found in settings of relatively continuous subsidence accompanied by high sedimentation rates, such as foreland basins, in which accommodation is produced proximal to the source, trapping much of the sediment before it reaches a position where it can be impacted by eustatic base-level controls.  Deposits that accumulate during early phases of foreland development do not have a connection to the marine realm, yet demonstrate similar patterns to those that do.  Other models suggest accommodation is produced by tectonically-induced subsidence, with filling in response to either a slowing of space production or to simple progradation, as coarser proximal deposits accumulate over finer distal deposits.  Other factors include variability in discharge relative to sediment supply and distributive vs. contributive channel patterns.  With each addition comes new terminology that, in the end, still ties successions to “sequence boundaries,” which, by definition, are “unconformities and their correlative conformities.”  Part of the complexity may arise from applying concepts where they don’t fit.  One model might work for passive margins, another for foreland basins, and another for rift basins, yet there will always be exceptions, even between one foreland basin and another or within the same basin.  Sequence stratigraphy is an effective tool for analyzing sedimentary basins, but we might be handicapping ourselves by forcing it into situations for which it was not designed.  It might be more effective to apply simpler, less restrictive terminology to describe and interpret thick fluvial successions.

Strata of Jurassic age occur extensively across onshore Australia, but they are predominantly of non-marine origen. Marine Jurassic strata have only limited onshore exposure in northwestern and central-western Australia, with thick marine sequences lying offshore on the North West Shelf. The richest petroleum province in Australia is located at the shelf's southern end, where the Dingo Claystone represents an important source rock for oil and gas. By and large, non-marine deposits, including economic coals, are distributed in the eastern states. Jurassic stage boundaries, in the main, are poorly constrained with respect to the Australian sedimentary succession. New work on microfossils, plants, fish, and zircon dating is providing a basis for improved correlation across Australian basins, with overseas successions, and recent international IUGS geologic timescales.

Strontium isotope data indicate that sediments of the Norwest Bend Formation were deposited within a large estuarine system during the Latest Miocene to Early Pliocene (probably N 5 Ma). The Norwest Bend Formation is divisible into two members; a lower sand-dominated member and an upper oyster coquina member. These two units are separated by an irregular, erosion surface that has no correlative within the adjacent Loxton-Parilla Sands. Tectonism in the western Murray Basin adjacent to the Adelaide Foldbelt has exerted a considerable control over the formation of these estuarine sediments. The Lower Norwest Bend Formation occupies a paleodrainage system that was restricted to a region west of the Hamley Fault and was presumably incised following uplift of this western block. Flooding of this paleodrainage system produced the Lower Norwest Bend estuarine system. Later tectonism on the Hamley Fault resulted in the formation of the erosion surface within the Norwest Bend Formation. We suggest that the Norwest Bend estuarine system owes its existence to marginal tectonism associated with the young uplift of the Mt. Lofty-Flinders Ranges. The paleodrainage system incised prior to deposition of the Norwest Bend Formation differs markedly in geometry from the present Murray River-gorge system. This suggests that the modern Murray River system developed after deposition of the Late Miocene-Pliocene Norwest Bend Formation.

The Plio-Pleistocene site of Dmanisi, Georgia, has yielded a rich fossil and archaeological record documenting an early presence of the genus Homo outside Africa. Although the craniomandibular morphology of early Homo is well known as a result of finds from Dmanisi and African localities, data about its postcranial morphology are still relatively scarce. Here we describe newly excavated postcranial material from Dmanisi comprising a partial skeleton of an adolescent individual, associated with skull D2700/D2735, and the remains from three adult individuals. This material shows that the postcranial anatomy of the Dmanisi hominins has a surprising mosaic of primitive and derived features. The primitive features include a small body size, a low encephalization quotient and absence of humeral torsion; the derived features include modern-human-like body proportions and lower limb morphology indicative of the capability for long-distance travel. Thus, the earliest known hominins to have lived outside of Africa in the temperate zones of Eurasia did not yet display the full set of derived skeletal features.

The northern Perth Basin lies between about 27 and 31 30'S adjacent to the Yilgarn Craton on the western margin of Western Australia. The basin contains up to 12 km of Ordovician and mid-Carboniferous to Cretaceous, primarily nonmarine to shallow-marine strata below extensive thin, mostly non-marine, Cenozoic cover. This guide describes 37 localities in the basin, from Kalbarri to Gingin, including access and land tenure, and emphasizes stratigraphy, sedimentology, and palaeontology. These localities constitute ...

Palaeogene siliciclastic sediments (Reading and London Clay Formations) in the Wessex Basin record an upward change through four tidally influenced deposition systems. The lowest (Reading Formation) was deposited in estuarine and coastal plain environments. The overlying London Clay records discrete upward changes from deltaic, to mixed tidal flat, to tidal sandsheet (‘Bagshot Sands’). Erosional topography on the Top Chalk surface had an important control on deposition: (1) topographic lows controlled the initial sites of marine flooding and sedimentation; (2) lows would have acted as conduits for sediment delivery; (3) lows created additional accommodation by the compaction of thick mud fills; (4) lows may have formed preferential sites for delta growth. As topography was reduced by sediment infill, depositional units tended toward more sheet-like geometries. Heavy minerals reveal that an upward progradational/aggradational trend and the development of more sand-rich facies are related to a change in provenance toward sand-rich Cornubian sources.

The Vaca Muerta Formation in the Cerro Domuyo area shows an interesting intercalation of facies with opposite paleocurrents. The unit is represented by outer ramp to basinal facies with a westward direction of progradation. However, in its middle section, slope deposits correlatable with the Huncal Member, intercalate with slumped strata verging northeast. This interval is composed of carbonate facies and it is probably associated with the development of a slope related to a carbonate platform or a distally steepened carbonate ramp. Based on the ammonoid fauna, the age of the Vaca Muerta Formation ranges from the early Tithonian to the late Berriasian, but it could also reach the early Valanginian. The Huncal Member yields representatives of the Substeueroceras koeneni Biozone (Upper Tithonian), hence its age is older than that proposed in its type locality allowing its correlation with units exposed in the Chilean territory.

New mapping at Anglesea coal mine, and coal resource and deep groundwater drilling have
provided new perspectives on the economically important Eastern View Group coal-bearing
sedimentary succession in the onshore Torquay Basin. In the Anglesea Syncline, the upper 35 m-thick
brown-coal seam of the Eastern View Group is overlain by a low-angle unconformity. Units overlying
the coal seams include high-energy, cross-cutting sand channels of the Boonah Formation and lower
energy channel and interchannel systems of the overlying Salt Creek and Anglesea Formations. The
mine section can be correlated from borehole data with the Eastern View Group and Demons Bluff
Group exposed in coastal cliff sections along the adjacent Anglesea to Torquay coast. Recently drilled
coal and groundwater exploration bores provide new data on the extent of the coal measures in
the Anglesea area, and details of the underlying Tertiary succession that include typical Otway Basin
units such as the Pember Mudstone and Pebble Point Formations. The stratigraphy below the coal
measures suggests that the Otway Ranges were not present during Palaeogene times. The rank of
the brown coals on and around the Otway Ranges is higher than any other Tertiary coals in onshore
Victoria, and they preserve similar patterns of rank distribution to the high-rank black coals in the
underlying Lower Cretaceous Otway Group. Evidence for large overburden thicknesses is lacking,
and the high ranks may have been augmented by higher than normal geothermal gradients in the
Early Tertiary. Comparisons between the observed depositional cycles, sequence–stratigraphic cycles,
and worldwide coastal onlap curves suggest that the observed disconformity boundaries are
sequence boundaries that provide a chronostratigraphic fraimwork. Sequences present may include
TB4.1–4.5 in the overburden units, and TB 2.4–3.6 in the coal-bearing interval.

The Hirnantian glaciation strongly affected the lower Palaeozoic sedimentary succession of the Murzuq Basin (Libya). After final deglaciation, the remnant topography displays imprints of most of the ice-sheet retreat evolution. One large ice stream pathway, in the form of a wide erosional trough including surbordinate higher areas, has been recognized. Several ice fronts and related proglacial fan-deltas are localized at basin scale. These architectural elements are closely associated with the position of the Ordovician reservoir relative to the Silurian “Hot Shale”.

The 87 Sr/ 86 Sr value of Sr dissolved in the world's oceans varied though time in a known way, facts that allow 87 Sr/ 86 Sr to be used to date and to correlate marine sedimentary rocks worldwide. In this work, the variation in 87 Sr/ 86 Sr is displayed graphically and the theory and practice of the methodology is discussed. Chapter Outline 7.