Castles and Coprolites

There's an exciting paper out today in PNAS on Aşıklı Höyük , an early sedentary pre-pottery Neolithic site in central Anatolia, occupied a millennia earlier than that site oft discussed on this blog, Çatalhöyük . This paper by Stiner et al. is a great example of research that brings together work from different archaeological specialists to produce a coherent story, supported by multiple lines of evidence. The argument is based around the zooarchaeological analysis of animal remains, which demonstrates a shift over the occupation of the site from a broad spectrum of wild species, to a dominance of sheep by 8200 cal BC. However it is the geoarchaeological analysis that arguably provides direct evidence of deliberate animal management, and as a micromorphologist with a special interest in all things coprolite and dung related , I am very happy to see that this technique is one of the highlights of the paper! (Phytoliths also get a mention!). The researchers identify accumulation...

Deschutes National Forest April is not usually this busy but I've been away for almost 2 weeks visiting family in Oregon, hence the lack of updates. Prior to that I had a mad week of coursework marking, and now upon returning there's a stack of exam marking in my near future. Do not despair however, exciting micrographs are ready to be posted for May, and to make up for the lack of posting in April, here are some lovely images from hiking in central Oregon. Sorted sediments on meander beach Although it was technically a holiday, I can never resist having a bit of a dig, and spent a lovely afternoon test pitting around the in-laws property in Powell Butte (Crook County). It's hard to break the habit of staring at the ground looking for finds whilst taking a stroll, and last year we found a single fragment of worked obsidian, so this year we decided to start a survey. Nothing archaeological in the test pits alas, but we hope to extend the survey gradually every tim...

This month we have some micrographs from floor deposits in the refectory at Margat Castle, Syria . Here we have a fragment of lime, within which is embedded a lovely little foraminifera. Forams are tiny little marine creatures which have calcium carbonate shells, and when they die they form part of the fine sediment which is deposited on the sea floor. This in turn becomes sedimentary rock, and that's the origin of this tiny fragment of limestone. In XPL we can see that the void space inside the foram has a coating of highly birefringent (sparkly) material. These are tiny little calcite crystals. Calcite hypocoatings can result from several processes, but in this case it is likely the result of carbonate rich water percolating through pores in the sediment. Similar coatings can be seen in other voids in this layer. When the water evaporates the carbonate precipitates on the walls of the voids. A bit like the layers of lime-scale that form on taps and kettles if you live somewhe...