Selective woodland exploitation for charcoal production. A detailed analysis of charcoal kiln remains (ca. 1300–1900 AD) from Zoersel (northern Belgium)

A detailed study of charcoal burning activities has been made for the Zoersel forest (Northern Belgium) based on an inventory of charcoal kiln remains, the analyses of wood charcoal and other charred botanical macroremains and radiocarbon dating of 10 of these kilns. Age determination of the youngest kilns was refined by dendrochronological analysis of trees growing on top of these kiln sites. The results show that, although many kilns were found, charcoal was produced in Zoersel only at certain moments during late and post-medieval times suggesting that charcoal burning was not a part of the regular management practice of these forests. The wood used for the production of charcoal mainly consists of taxa of alluvial (alder) forests while the kilns are situated on sites that currently are rather dry, with an oak dominated vegetation. For the older kilns, this contrast could be explained by an important change in local soil conditions. The younger kilns may be related to the conversion of alder woodland to grassland in the lower parts of the domain, with the kilns being constructed in the nearby dryer woodland areas.     

Corpus cartographique pour l'histoire de Damas,Syrie, à la fin de la période ottomane (1760–1924)

Abstract

De manière générale, la cartographie des villes de l'empire ottoman est peu abondante. Au dix‐neuvième siècle, malgré plusieurs réformes administratives, l'autorité publique ne recourait pas à des documents cartographiques pour organiser les travaux d'édilité tandis que les étrangers rencontraient les plus grandes difficultés pour établir des représentations de ces villes. Damas constitue une exception à ce tableau. On dispose de plusieurs cartes antérieures à l'établissement du mandat français (1920) qui sont de qualité inégale. Les auteurs étrangers sont les plus nombreux et les plus fiables; le plus souvent archéologues ou historiens, ils ont dressé des documents partiels par toujours faciles à évaluer. Cependant, et malgré la faiblesse de son volume (sept documents), le corpus des premières cartes de Damas constitue une source essentielle pour l'histoire du développement spatial de la ville entre le milieu du dix‐neuvième siècle et l'établissement du pouvoir mandataire.     

Permian palynostratigraphy of the Claromecó Basin,Argentina

The first palynozonation for Permian strata of the Claromecó Basin (Argentina) is formally proposed, based on palynological assemblages recovered from the UTAL.CMM1 La Estrella.x-1 and UTAL.CMM1 Cruz de Sur.x-1 boreholes, drilled on the Argentinian Continental Platform and correlation with established zones from neighbouring basins. Fifty-five samples were analyzed and 131 species identified from two biozones. The lower Converrucosisporites confluens–Vittatina vittifera (CV) Zone occurs in the Piedra Azul and Bonete formations of both boreholes. This zone can be assigned a Cisuralian–Guadalupian age. The upper Tornopollenites toreutos–Reduviasporonites chalastus (TC) Zone registered in the Tunas Formation can be assigned a Guadalupian–Lopingian age. The CV Zone is dominated by diverse non-taeniate bisaccate, plicate and taeniate pollen. Monosaccate and monosulcate pollen, algae and acritarchs are poorly represented in both biozones. The composition of the TC Zone is broadly similar to the CV Zone, but bisaccate pollen grains are markedly more diverse and abundant in the former.     

Assessing Ceramic Compositional Data: A Comparison of Total Reflection X‐ray Fluorescence and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis On Late Iron Age Spanish Celtiberian Ceramics

A solid‐phase, non‐chemical processing protocol was recently developed as a means of chemically characterizing archaeological ceramics by total reflection X‐ray fluorescence (TXRF). Following this methodology, TXRF can provide semi‐quantitative determinations for 18 elements with comparable levels of precision and accuracy for the majority of them in comparison with a clay reference material analysed by instrumental neutron activation (INAA). In order critically to assess the analytical capabilities of TXRF, a large sample set of Late Iron Age Spanish Celtiberian ceramics and modern clays was analysed both by TXRF and INAA. Semi‐quantitative chemical data provided by TXRF and quantitative data provided by INAA were subjected to commonly used multivariate statistical methods as a way of evaluating the ability of the new technique to discriminate among different compositional groups. The comparison of the two data sets shows no significant discrepancies, thereby allowing support for the same archaeological interpretation. These results suggest that TXRF has potential applicability for compositional characterization of archaeological ceramics, providing data that are useful for provenance studies.     

Stochastic Efficiency of Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo in Spatial Econometric Models: An Empirical Comparison of Exact Sampling Methods

Spatial econometric specifications pose unique computational challenges to Bayesian analysis, making it difficult to estimate models efficiently. In the literature, the main focus has been on extending Bayesian analysis to increasingly complex spatial models. The stochastic efficiency of commonly used Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) samplers has received less attention by comparison. Specifically, Bayesian methods to analyze effective sample size and samplers that provide large effective size have not been thoroughly considered in the literature. Thus, we compare three MCMC techniques: the familiar Metropolis‐within‐Gibbs sampling, Slice‐within‐Gibbs sampling, and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo. The latter two methods, while common in other domains, are not as widely encountered in Bayesian spatial econometrics. We assess these methods across four different scenarios in which we estimate the spatial autoregressive parameter in a mixed regressive, spatial autoregressive specification (or, spatial lag model). We find that off‐the‐shelf implementations of the newer high‐yield simulation techniques require significant adaptation to be viable. We further find that the effective sizes are often significantly smaller than nominal sizes. In addition, we find that stopping simulation early may understate posterior credible interval widths when effective sample size is small. More broadly, we suggest that sample information and stopping rules deserve more attention in both applied and basic Bayesian spatial econometric research.     

ZONING A CROSS‐BORDER CITY

This paper investigates zoning in a cross‐border linear city that consists of two bordering towns. In each town, a local regulator has a say in the location of the local firm. We find that local regulators may use zoning strategically. The incentive to gain consumers from the other town, or not to lose local consumers, may push regulators to approve only locations for firms close enough to the frontier. When zoning is costly an asymmetric equilibrium may emerge: only one regulator resorts to zoning. In the case of towns of different sizes, the regulator of the larger town is the only one that zones in an asymmetric equilibrium.     

Properties of Tests for Spatial Dependence in Linear Regression Models

Based on a large number of Monte Carlo simulation experiments on a regular lattice, we compare the properties of Moran's I and Lagrange multiplier tests for spatial dependence, that is, for both spatial error autocorrelation and for a spatially lagged dependent variable. We consider both bias and power of the tests for six sample sizes, ranging from twenty-five to 225 observations, for different structures of the spatial weights matrix, for several underlying error distributions, for misspecified weights matrices, and for the situation where boundary effects are present. The results provide an indication of the sample sizes for which the asymptotic properties of the tests can be considered to hold. They also illustrate the power of the Lagrange multiplier tests to distinguish between substantive spatial dependence (spatial lag) and spatial dependence as a nuisance (error autocorrelation).     

High precision isotopic analyses of lead ores from New Mexico by MC-ICP-MS: implications for tracing the production and exchange of Pueblo IV glaze-decorated pottery

Between ca. 1275 and 1700 CE, Pueblo groups in the northern Southwest United States produced and exchanged ceramic bowls decorated with lead-based glaze paints. Previous studies of these glaze-decorated bowls have used lead isotopic analysis by ICP-MS to identify the sources of lead used by Pueblo potters, and investigate how social or economic factors may have influenced resource use among different Pueblo communities (e.g. 13 and 14; Huntley et al., 2007; Huntley, 2008). However, interpretations of much of this isotopic data have remained provisional because of overlap among the isotopic ratios of potential sources and because the isotopic composition of many glaze paints do not clearly match any known source. Here, we use multi-collector ICP-MS to re-measure the lead isotopic composition of 48 samples of lead sulfide (galena) and lead carbonate (cerussite) from sources in New Mexico that were potentially utilized by Pueblo potters, including mines within the Cerrillos Hills, Magdalena, Hansonburg, and Joyita Hills mining districts. These results define the isotopic composition of lead ores from these districts with greater precision and accuracy than achieved in previous studies and better distinguish among these mining districts in lead isotope space. Most significantly, we find that galena mineralization within the Cerrillos Hills only has a modest degree of isotopic variation, with ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb ratios from 18.508 to 18.753, ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb ratios from 15.580 to 15.607, and ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb ratios from 38.388 to 38.560. These ranges are far narrower than previously reported, and should supersede previously published values for this district. In total, we conclude that isotopic measurements of both ores and glaze paints made by MC-ICP-MS will provide new information about the provenance of lead in glaze paints and allow for more detailed interpretations about resource procurement and exchange in the Pueblo world.     

Lead isotope analysis as a new method for identifying material culture belonging to the Vázquez de Coronado expedition

Archaeological evidence has become an increasingly important component of efforts to identify the route of the Francisco Vázquez de Coronado expedition through northern Mexico and the southwestern United States (1540-1542). Here, we report the first high-precision lead isotopic measurements of artifacts from two archaeological sites with strong material evidence for the expedition’s presence: Piedras Marcadas Pueblo in New Mexico and the Jimmy Owens Site in Texas. The analysis of lead and copper armaments from both sites reveals that many artifacts have overlapping or extremely similar isotopic ratios. We propose that the narrow range of lead isotopic ratios measured on these artifacts can be interpreted as a geochemical fingerprint for some of the Coronado expedition’s surviving material culture, and provides evidence that we interpret to suggest the expedition derived lead and copper metal from Mexican sources. Such a geochemical fingerprint presents an empirical method for discriminating between artifacts that belonged to the Coronado expedition and those related to subsequent Spanish, historical, or modern activity in the Southwest U.S. Thus, this method could significantly impact the search for and identification of archaeological sites associated with the Coronado expedition.