Archaeological indicators for sea level change and coastal neotectonic deformation: the submerged Roman fish tanks of the gulf of Matala, Crete, Greece

Due to the direct relationship between their function and ancient sea levels, Roman fish tanks and fish traps are excellent indicators for sea level changes through time. For this study, eleven submerged systems of fish tanks were investigated along the rocky southern coast of the gulf of Matala, Crete. Seven of them are still in a good state of preservation and thus underwent detailed survey and documentation. The measurements of their recent submersion, the determination of the way they operated, as well as their correlation with coastal landforms indicative of an older sea level, permit the identification of a mean Roman sea level at the SW coast of central Crete 1.25 m below the present one. According to historical evidence, the submersion of the SW coasts of the central part of Crete must have been occurred between 1415 and 1865 during a paroxysmal tectonic event and is probably related with the strong earthquake of 1604.     

Environmental changes in the Maryut lagoon (northwestern Nile delta) during the last ∼2000 years

Here, we interpret the evolution of Maryut lagoon (Egypt) during the past ∼2000 years. Chronostratigraphy and laboratory analyses have enabled us to identify four main phases since the 3rd century AD: (1) a fluvial-dominated lagoon between the 2nd–3rd and the 8–9th centuries cal. AD; (2) a gradual desiccation of the lagoon toward a sebkha-like environment from the 9–10th to the 13th centuries cal. AD; (3) a fluvial-dominated lagoon from the 13th century cal. AD; and (4) a second gradual desiccation between the 17th and the 18th centuries cal. AD. The general aridification trend described throughout the study period may be linked to the gradual decline of the Canopic branch, which supplied the Maryut lagoon with freshwater. Nonetheless, at shorter timescales, the different phases of lagoon aridification and flooding coincide with land abandonment and irrigation works in the region. It is suggested that the history of the Alexandria countryside has been a key driver in shaping the environmental history of the Maryut during the past ∼2000 years.     

Using Stakeholder Decision-making Simulation to Teach Integrated Coastal Management

A simulation technique to teach aspects of stakeholder participation in integrated coastal management is described and evaluated. Through student feedback, it was found that the benefits of the simulation included improved understanding of interdisciplinary coastal issues, greater insight into the challenges facing contemporary coastal managers and an expanded suite of marketable skills. It is concluded that while this type of simulation requires a re-evaluation of the relationship between the lecturer and students, it has the potential to be transplanted successfully into other areas of geographic study that require understanding of participatory governance processes.     

Recovering the Forgotten Woodland Mound Excavations at Garden Patch (8DI4)

Forty-five years ago Timothy Thompson excavated at two of the six mounds at the Garden Patch site but results were never reported. We assembled data from Thompson's work and enhanced them with new test pits at Mound IV and re-excavation of a Mound V trench. Mound IV is a natural sand ridge where a village was established early, by the second century A.D. Mound V began as a naturally elevated platform for at least one burial and associated structure during the fourth century A.D. and was then covered by lenses of shell and sand. The construction sequence of Mound V resembles other mounds in the region. These results help illuminate the functions and depositional histories of mounds within Woodland multi-mound centers of the coastal plain while also demonstrating an effective approach to balancing stewardship and new excavations.     

Depressions and elevations of the southern archipelagoes of chile

The post‐war employment changes on Clydeside: the continued decline of the traditional industries, the slow expansion of the new growth industries, and the relative lack of change in the employment .structure of the conurbation. The effect of the employment changes on the pattern of industrial distribution in the conurbation in the light of a number of factors such as the availability of land, the City of Glasgow's redevelopment and overspill policies, the immigration of new firms, the outward movement of population, ‘and the role of central government policy. The possibility of changing circumstances resulting from more recent increased levels of redevelopment and the availability in the “centre of the conurbation of larger amounts of developable land on privately operated industrial estates.     

Geoarchaeology of Sidon's ancient harbours,Phoenicia

Geoarchaeological data from Sidon's ancient harbour areas elucidate six evolutionary phases since the Bronze Age. (1) At the time of Sidon's foundation, during the third millennium BC, medium sand facies show the city's northern and southern pocket beaches to have served as proto-harbours for Middle to Late Bronze Age societies. (2) Towards the end of the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, expanding international trade prompted coastal populations into modifying these natural anchorages. In Sidon's northern harbour, transition from shelly to fine-grained sands is the earliest granulometric manifestation of human coastal modification. The lee of Zire island was also exploited as a deep-water anchorage, or outer harbour, at this time. (3) Although localised sediments evoke developed port infrastructure during the Phoenician and Persian periods, high-resolution reconstruction of the northern harbour's Iron Age history is problematic given repeated dredging practices during the Roman and Byzantine periods. (4) Fine-grained silts and sands in the northern harbour are coeval with advanced Roman engineering works, significantly deforming the coastal landscape. Bio- and lithostratigraphical data attest a leaky lagoon type environment, indicative of a well-protected port. (5) The technological apogee of Sidon's northern harbour is recorded during the late Roman and Byzantine periods, translated stratigraphically by a plastic clays unit and brackish lagoon fauna. (6) A final semi-abandonment phase, comprising coarse sand facies, concurs silting up and a 100–150 m progradation of the port coastline after the seventh century AD. We advance three hypotheses to explain these stratigraphic data, namely cultural, tectonic and tsunamogenic. Finally, our results are compared and contrasted with research undertaken in Sidon's sister harbour, Tyre.     

From Pleistocene Mariners to Complex Hunter-Gatherers: The Archaeology of the California Channel Islands

California’s Channel Islands were home to some of the most distinctive Native American peoples along the Pacific Coast. Never connected to the mainland during the Quaternary, the Channel Islands have an impoverished terrestrial flora and fauna, but some of the richest and most productive marine environments in the Americas, including diverse kelp forest, intertidal, and offshore marine habitats. Native Americans occupied the Channel Islands for roughly 13,000 calendar years until the early nineteenth century, providing one of the longest and best preserved records of maritime hunter-gatherers in the Americas. We provide an overview and analysis of Channel Islands archaeology, from the relatively mobile peoples who colonized the islands during the Late Pleistocene to the complex hunter-gatherers documented by early Spanish explorers. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of Channel Islands archaeology for enhancing knowledge on a number of broad anthropological issues, including coastal and aquatic adaptations, seafaring, cultural complexity, trade and exchange, and ancient human impacts on the environment.     

中国的海疆与我国海洋地缘政治战略

根据中国领海与毗连区制度以及联合国海洋法公约,我国的领海及海洋国土的面积为300万km²。鸦片战争历史上不平等条约的签订,我国海疆与海权的丧失。文中还提出了90年代及21世纪我国海洋地缘政治战略。     

New maps

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

The Periglacial Environment. By H. M. French. 22 × 15 cm., 309 pp., 67 figures, 50 photographs, tables, references. Longman, Harlow, 1976. Paper £5.50.

Glaciers and Landscape. By David E. Sugden and Brian S. John. 23 × 17 cm., 376 pp. Numerous illustrations. References. Index. Edward Arnold, London, 1976. Paper £5.95.

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY

The Development of the West of Scotland 1750‐1960. By Anthony Slaven. 22 × 14 cm., 272 pp., 4 maps, 29 tables, bibliography, index. Routledge and Kegan Paul 1975. £6.50.

A Geography of 19th‐century Britain. By P. J. Perry. 22 × 14, 187 pp., plates, maps and diagrams. Batsford, London, 1975. £6.50 (£2.95 paperback).

SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY

Recreation in the Countryside—A Spatial Analysis. By J. T. Coppock and B. S. Duffield. 24 × 16, 262 pp., 34 figures, references, index. Macmillan, London, 1975. £8.95 (£3.95 paperback).

A Geography of Tourism. By H. Robinson. 21 × 13 cm., 47 pp., 47 illustrations, tables, index. Macdonald and Evans, London, 1976. Paper £4.25.

The Look of the Land. By John Fraser Hart. 23 × 16 cm., 210 pp., illustrations, index. Prentice‐Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1975.

REGIONAL

Southern Europe: the Mediterranean and Alpine lands. By Monica and Robert Beckinsale. 29 × 20, 334 pp., 107 maps and diagrams, 38 plates, tables, bibliography, index. U. of London Press, London, 1975. £10.50.

London. By David Gowing. Longman Revised Colour Geographies, Editor Rex Walford. 23 × 21, 48 pp. Longman, Harlow, 1976. 75p.

TECHNIQUES

Mathematics for Geographers and Planners. By A. G. Wilson and M. J. Kirkby. 20 × 18, 325 pp. Illustrations, tables, references, index. Clarendon/Oxford Press, London, 1975. £6.75 (£3.00 paperback).

Patterns in Human Geography: An Introduction to Numerical Methods. By David M. Smith. 22 × 14, 373 pp, Illustrations, diagrams and tables, Index. David &; Charles, Newton Abbot, 1975. £6.50.

CARTOGRAPHY

The Times Atlas of the World: Comprehensive Edition. 46 × 32, xi pp. and 123 plates. Index 223 pp. Times Books/Bartholomew, London and Edinburgh, 1975. £26.

EDUCATIONAL

Objective Tests in Geography for O‐Level and C.S.E.: The British Isles. By K. Briggs. 24 × 18., 101 pp. Hodder &; Stoughton, London, 1976. £1.35.

The Developing World: Geography Four. Living Together. By S. Crawford. 24 × 18, 128 pp. Longman, London, 1975. £1.50.

Industries in Britain. By M. P. Devereux. 27 × 22, 80 pp, 95 figures. Macmillan, London, 1974. 70p.

Three Giant Powers. By Martin Simons. 20 × 21 cm., 144 pp., many illustrations, index. Oxford University Press 1974. £1.25.

The U.S.S.R. By Harry Robinson. 14 × 22 cm., 250 pp., 32 illus., diagrams, index. University Tutorial Press, London, 1975. £1.80.

No. 26 Teaching Geography—Motorway. By E. Rawling (Geographical Association). Sheffield. 23 pp., 25×20, 1976. 55p.

No. 27 Teaching Geography—Analysis of Land Use Data. By R. Daugherty (Geographical Association). Sheffield. 25×20, 16 pp. 1976. 50p.

Place and People: 1. Village, Town and City. Ed. by S. Dunlop. 76 pp., 25×19. Heine‐mann, London, 1976. £1.25.

Atlas of Denmark—Series II, Vol. 2. Topographic Atlas Denmark. Edited by Ruth Helkier Jensen and Kr. M. Jensen. Pp.192. 34×25. The Royal Danish Geographical Society, Copenhagen, 1976. DKr. 195.00.

North America: Maps. Topographical Map Studies of Canada and the U.S.A. By R. Knowles and P. W. E. Stave. Pp. 96, 21 × 33. Longmans, 1976. £3.95.

Geography Project Workbooks, book 3—Britain's Trade and Communications. By S. C. Harrison, et al. Pp.32. 24×18. Longmans, 1976. 45p.

The New Certificate Geography Series: A Level. Monsoon Asia. 3rd edition. By H. Robinson. Pp.528. 22×14. Macdonald and Evans, London, 1976. £3.75 paperback.

A Geography of Britain. 3rd edition, up‐dated. By A. R. Toison and M. E. Johnstone Pp.259. 23×17. Oxford University Press, London, 1976. £2.50.

Elementary Geographical Fieldwork. By J. Hume Brown. Pp. 152, 20×13. Blackie Glasgow, 1976. £1.75.

Geographies: A certificate series: North America. 2nd edition. By F. J. Monkhouse and H. R. Cain. Pp.332. 21 × 14. Longman, Harlow, 1976. £1.50.

Sketch‐map Geographies: Book Seven: Economic Geography. By P. Speak and H. C. Carter. 2nd, up‐dated edition. Pp. 76. 25 × 19. Longman, Harlow, 1976. £1.25.     

Geochemical impacts to prehistoric iron-rich siliceous artifacts in the nearshore coastal zone

In the Middle Atlantic region of the United States, landscapes drowned by sea level rise contain scores of prehistoric archaeological sites. These sites provide archaeologists with a rare opportunity to investigate various geologic processes. During the transition from a terrestrial to an offshore setting, the materials associated with an archaeological site are exposed to a series of geochemical processes inherent to the formation of tidal marsh. The duration of the geochemical exposure to tidal marsh is largely dependent on the rate of marine transgression. Here we describe the stages associated with the sulfidization and sulfuricization scheme and the impact to iron-rich lithic artifacts from naturally drowned archaeological sites. Sulfidization and sulfuricization should also impact buried archaeological materials as a result of anthropogenic dredge spoil dumping and the creation of man-made tidal marshes along modern coastlines. Our results indicate that the surfaces of an iron-rich artifact, as well as its interior are visually and geochemically altered by prolonged exposure to the anaerobic conditions of a tidal marsh. Not only should researchers be cautious about making lithic material identification on artifacts found within coastal tidal marsh areas, but museum curators should be aware of the damaging impact of long-term aerobic storage. The geochemical tidal marsh scheme that has altered or corroded iron-rich lithic artifacts in the nearshore zone is an expression of a process that has impacted numerous earlier prehistoric sites currently located on the continental shelf or beneath the coastal estuaries around the world.