Coring

Recent changes in the fluvial dynamics of the middle Garonne river (SW France) are approached by combining historical maps and data field (cores and Electrical Resistivity Tomographies – ERT). This study is carried out at the scale of a 5 km length reach in the Grenades-Ondes area, 22.5 km N-NW of Toulouse. The results retrace the changes of the system over a period of about one millennium. These results show a significant modification between: 1) a state of reduced hydro-dynamism during the central Middle-Age (XIth XIIIth centuries AD); 2) a revival in the fluvial dynamics during the modern period, related to the Little Ice Age (early XIXth century); and 3) a current trend to contraction and simplification of the channel, started from the mid-nineteenth century, probably as a result of combined effects of local human and hydro geomorphological factors and a decrease in major flood related to the end of the LIA.

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Identifying the Earliest Neolithic Settlements in the Southeastern Balkans Laurent Lespez, Zoï Tsirtsoni, Pascal Darcque, Dimitra Malamidou, Koukouli-Chrysanthaki Chaido, Arthur Glais

ABSTRACT Effigy mounds occur across the midcontinent of North America but their cultural purposes and construction chronologies are rarely known and often controversial. Determining the age and construction history of monuments is important to relate religious symbolism, scientific knowledge, and cultural continuity to groups within a region. Based mainly on circumstantial evidence, researchers have long held that Serpent Mound in Ohio, USA, was constructed 2000–3000 years ago during the Early Woodland (Adena) or Middle Woodland (Hopewell) periods. Excavations in 1991 recovered charcoal buried at shallow depths (35–45 cm) in fill units of the mound and the 14C ages from two of these units indicated that Serpent Mound was built ∼900 years ago, during the Late Prehistoric (Fort Ancient) period, much later than originally thought. Our recent multidisciplinary work provides a more complex, robust construction history of Serpent Mound. We used geophysics to map the mound, and solid-earth cores to provide accurate stratigraphy and organic samples for 14C age estimates from the base of the mound. Bayesian statistical analyses of the seven 14C ages from Serpent Mound suggest that it was first constructed ∼2300 years ago during the Early Woodland (Adena) period but was renovated 1400 years later during the Late Prehistoric (Fort Ancient) period, probably to repair eroded portions of the mound. Modification of the mound is also indicated by a possible abandoned coil that is located near the head of the Serpent and visible only in the magnetometer survey.

Tells famously capture the historical sequences of the earliest farmers—but digging them is not easy. With a depth of strata of 17m at Dikili Tash, the earliest occupation was out of reach of a trench. But our researchers got there by coring, extending the date of the first occupation back 1000 years, and deducing, from small samples, the changing environment and possible connections with Anatolia.

Scientific investigations of marine gas hydrate formations have provided the impetus for all wireline pressure core development apart from proprietary oilfield technology, including the HYACINTH (HYACe In New Tests on Hydrate, 2001) system. The first scientific wireline pressure ...